Backyard Project

For years our backyard has been a pain-point for us: huge potentially useful space, no pool, horrible grass, cyclical infestation of ants, play/potty area for our dogs, and glaring afternoon sun.  For this reason the gigantic lanai and securely fenced yard have been ignored.  With 3 kids in our not-so-large house, it was time to take control, and make the lanai more 'liveable' and the yard 'playable'.

It all started with adding a simple doggie door to the screen enclosure.  This greatly reduced the opening and closing of the main door on the lanai leading to the yard to let Watson in and out, and I am happy to say, reduced the number of bugs getting into the screened area. 

The next step was to reduce the amount of dirt splashing into the lanai during the rain storms.  As you can see from this picture, we don't (yet) have gutters along the back of the house.  So, when it rains the runoff pounds into the dirt and splashes all over the lanai.  To solve this I dug a 3in deep 18in wide plant bed around the screen.  I used a heavy weed block to keep the dirt down and laid 3 inches of red lava rock on top.  Not only does it look better, but seems to be reducing the dirt from runoff during rain storms. 

Next, (and this was the most time consuming part) was devising a solution to block the afternoon sun.  Our house faces due West.  Not just a little West, like spot-on, blindingly West.  The sun is so hot and glaring that we often play out on the front driveway in the afternoon to hide.  We had considered roll down shades on the interior of the screen, but I really wanted a more gazebo-style feel.  So, I decided to research outdoor curtains.  I found this great idea on Pinterest, and made it happen.  Our lanai is large so my supplies included:

• 10 6x9 drop cloths (10 oz. weight since that is thickest option and provided more shade)
• 5 packs of 14 drapery ring/clips
• 6 electrical conduit rods (10 ft. long)
• 4 packs of curtain tie-back hooks
• 9 curtain tie-back tassels
• 10 5/16" eye-bolts (to go directly into the exterior stucco for mounting) 
• 8 wooden finials and a bag of small corks from Michael's 
• 2 cans of Rustoleum spray paint (to spray paint the conduit rods and finials)

Electrical Conduit being spray painted

Hooks for curtain tiebacks

Tassels

Coupling to connect electrical conduit

Clip Rings for curtains

Drop cloths for curtains

Olivia helping to wash, dry and iron all 10 curtain panels

Grayson amongst the boxes of new lanai furniture.  (This was just the first load!)

The curtain portion of the project cost me a little less than $250, for the whole space.  The time commitment is where the real investment lies (roughly 30-35 hours), not to mention trips back and forth to the store to find 'just the right details'...

Here are some before and after pics.  The before pics are a little old (January 2012), but the best I could come up with to capture both sides of the lanai.  

BEFORE (Left Side)

AFTER (Left Side)

BEFORE (Right Side)

AFTER (Right Side)