Isn't it great being able to walk out and jump in any time you want? Our neighbors' trees add to our landscape like yours, but don't provide the nice shade you have by your table. Your water feature in the planter is one of the nicest I've seen on the forum. Hope it all brings you many hours of relaxation and fun with your loved ones.

What a lovely backyard! The first thing that I noticed was the lovely colors of your pool. It looks so inviting! I love the total landscaping too, especially the tree behind the waterfall.

How does your beautiful dog like the pool?

Love your pool and everything else in your yard, it really has a nice layout and cozy feel. We are having a fiberglass pool installed and I was wondering about your decking, how is it for not being to slick? Is the color a medium tan, I wasn't sure from the pictures? Also I like the large squares in the deck, are those grooved or saw cuts? Thanks for sharing your pictures you have a great set up.

Beautiful! Love the layout and your landscaping is awesome!

LOOKS BEAUTIFUL, when we return from vacation our bar should be done and I will have pics of our completed project.

Just beautiful! Another successful "Smaller Yard" makeover, although it looks considerably larger than mine. Your pool, landscape and patio furniture all blend wonderfully together. Would you mind sharing your yard and pool's dimensions? Congratulations and enjoy!

Best Regards,

Mike

Wow you did a great job. The pool looks so cool and inviting, the tile and deck are so well coordinated and even the evergreen behind the sheer accents the pool color. You have a great eye for design, congratulations. Thanks for sharing, love the waterfall too.
Barb

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone! I don't think I did the slideshow link correctly, so I'm retrying that one. It's hard to believe it's the same yard.

madelineg - We really are enjoying the pool right out the door. We're having some good quality time with our teenagers now. Something we can all enjoy together. Our neighborhood is about 18 yrs old so with lots of trees. Fortunately we can enjoy those while our yard grows back.

kristenfl - I never get tired of looking at how the pool changes colors during the day. My favorite time is late afternoon when the accent tiles reflect on the darker water. Reminds me of watching the water change in Turks & Caicos :-)

jetlane -The color is a medium grey. I think the stamp was called "rough stamp"? It's not slick at all. They scored the concrete as it was starting to form up. I didn't want too many score lines since our dogs shed so badly . . harder to clean.

rachelacey - Thanks! We were limited since we were trying to work around the existing waterfall/planter, but we're really happy with the way it turned out. We almost feel like we have our own mini-resort now.

gk5040 - I can't wait to see yours when it's finished. I'm going to have built-in bcue envy. You can see we didn't have any room left (unless we didnt' have the hot tub). I'll enjoy yours vicariously ;-) Have a great vacation!

mkfmedic - The patio furniture is another Costco special ;-) Our yard is about 80 ft wide and ranges from about 25 to 36 ft deep. We also have a 12'x16' side yard by the hot tub that we built a 4' high fence and enclosed dog run. Here's another picture from the other side at the hot tub:

airborne 101 - Thanks for the nice compliments. We thought the tree behind the pool would be a unique focal point. I really love doing projects like this. It's a lot more fun than my day job as a CPA ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Christy's Pool Progress

Congratulations looks great! :)

beachdiva: Absolutely gorgious!! You've done a fantastic job! Looks so relaxing and tranquil!

Just stunning! The entire yard looks just so peaceful and relaxing..

Do you mind sharing the type/color of stone used for your water feature/planter?

We are in the midst of selecting stone and tile and it is driving me crazy!

Thanks!

Beautiful-- incredible landscaping, pool, and furniture!

Looks gorgeous!! Your selections are very nice. Enjoy!!

The entire area looks great, so relaxing. Those chairs look mighty comfortable!!!

Love it!!

Thanks again for everyone's kind comments! We really enjoy being out there all the time now(with a cup of coffee in the morning or a cocktail in the afternoon, floating in the pool or hanging out by the fire pit ;-)). It's small, but it works.

happymrsf - here's the response I got a few months back from the 1st landscaper re: the stone on the waterfall/planter:

"The stone we used was Cultured Stone... www.culturedstone.com Its the "country ledgestone", and I am pretty sure it was the Chardonnay color, altho it could be Aspen also... I think if you look on the web site, you will be able to tell the color, but for sure its the Country Ledgestone."

Wish I could be more helpful on that. How could he not know which stone we used?? Good luck with your choices!

osorry1 - those chairs ARE mighty comfortable ;-) I've got mine staked out ;-)

Excellent use of space! Your pool area looks very inviting and comfortable. I love the waterfall near the fire table.

mkfmedic - I just saw pics of your pool on the stonescapes post and wanted to tell you how much I love your yard! I didn't remember that was your pool, but I printed out pics of it in my favorites file months ago. I love the darker finishes you and dogpaddle have, but in our yard, I think it would have been too dark since our pool is in the shade a lot. Anyway, your backyard remodel came out beautiful.

kitchenshock - thanks!!!!!!!

There are so many beautiful pools and ideas on this forum. It's been very helpful!

Beachdiva-

you took, right out of my head, the scenario I play out in my imagination every day-

"We really enjoy being out there all the time now(with a cup of coffee in the morning or a cocktail in the afternoon, floating in the pool or hanging out by the fire pit ;-)). It's small, but it works"

DH and I look at our dirt hole and imagine ourselves carelessly floating the day away--and he keeps telling me the same thing when I complain about our small yard/small pool - "it is all that we need"!

Thanks for the info on the stone. I have found a mulitude of stones that I like, but they are all cultured. PB and building supply store rep. do not recommend using cultured near chlorine/saltwater. I know everyone has their own opinion on this topic, but I want PB to honor their guarantee should anything happen down the road.

Happy floating!

Awesome job Christy! No wonder I like it so much, we share the same name & the smae spelling! I rarely find people that spell it the "right" way. ;-p

Love the water feature in the raised bed. You really have done a lot with a smaller space. DH says our pool (existing when we moved in) is way too big for our yard. Seeing pics like this gives me inspiration & hope that I too can get creative with our design.

Happymrsf - you'll be surprised at how much you enjoy it when it's done, small or not. Don't lose that vision! A plus with a smaller yard is there is less upkeep and more time for floating!!! ;-) Gotta find the positive in everything. Looking forward to seeing your finished project. What's your projected finish date? Re: the cultured stone - our original bid/plans were to use the same stone on the pool as we had on the planters. There was a thread awhile back about how the cultured stone can become discolored/white streaks in the water, so I changed my mind at the 11th hour. Instead of trying to compete with the waterfall/planter, I decided to just go with something that flowed together. I think stone RBB are beautiful! I would have loved to have had the stacked stone, but decided a real stone would have clashed with the existing cultured stone. Not the look I was going for. Will have to save the ideas for another yard, another project :-)

Fauxnecian aka Christy - too funny! You're so right about the spelling. If I got $1 for every time they spelled my name wrong on my cup @ Starbucks, I'd probably be able to pay for 1/2 the pool ;-) Yeah, there's a lot I wish I could do, but there's only so much space. Looking forward to seeing your pool, too. You haven't posted pics yet, have you? I thought you had just filled recently.

Wow, you have such a beautiful environment there. Those trees are really special :) Pool looks wonderful and everything flows together so nicely.

Smaller yards do have their advantages. We traded our huge yard/smallish home for dbl. SF home, much smaller yard. I like to garden and think I will find the yard now much easier to manage :)