The Great Outdoors

When we got started on our home renovation this time last year, we knew that most of the yard work would have to wait.  Since we weren’t living here, a nice backyard just wasn’t a priority.

You may remember that our backyard is narrow and deep.  Last summer we put in some cedars along the back fence line and removed the old wire fence along one side of the yard.  Other than that, we pretty much left things as is back there.

Now that we’re heading into our first summer in the house, we’re ready to start focusing on the backyard.  Deciding what to do, however, was a bit of challenge.

The garage (which is a double garage that we share with our neighbour) is in pretty rough shape.  Since the garage is at the end of a very narrow mutual driveway, we don’t use it for parking.  After discussions with our neighbour, we decided that we’d rather tear down the garage and replace the storage space with garden sheds at the back of our properties. 

We did some research and discovered that the municipal bylaw requires that we each maintain one parking space behind our house.  Currently, the garage meets that requirement.  So, to allow us to remove the garage but still meet the requirements, here’s the backyard plan we came up with:

• Remove the existing wire fence, bushes and stumps behind the garage.
• Tear down the garage.
• Create two parking spaces with interlock in the place of the existing garage (which we will actually use as patios).
• Put up a fence between the parking spaces and all along that side of the yard for privacy.
• Replace the asphalt on the mutual driveway.
• Build a garden shed in the back corner of the yard.
• Build a deck that will step down onto the interlock patio area, increasing our outdoor living space.

It’s a bit of an ambitious plan that will not get fully completed this summer, but will definitely make our backyard a lot more attractive and functional. 

We started the work last week, ripping down the old fence and ordering a storage container to hold our lawnmower, etc. while the garage gets demolished. 

 

This week, the garage comes down!