Backyard Renovation: "Before" Pics

I'm going to attempt to keep up with our backyard renovation on the blog to share with our family and others who are planning similar projects. Sorry in advance, I don't have a lot of free time these days, so these posts will likely be some drive-by posts with lots of pics and few words!

Here is the backyard when before we tore out the deck and the lattice privacy walls on either side of the pool:

And here are a bunch taken post-deck and wall removal:

No more lattice wall! Everywhere that used to be covered by wood deck will be stamped and stained concrete patio.

No more lattice wall on this side either. This is where a French drain will be installed to re-drect run-off from the neighbors' yard which is situated at a slightly higher elevation than ours.  Any time we get a heavy rain storm, buckets of silt run into our pool from under the fence.

 

The textured concrete under the covered patio and around the pool will be stained a darker color to freshen it up, modernize the look, and hopefully prevent stains from showing as easily in the future.

The knockdown-textured concrete around most of the pool and under the covered patio will be this French Gray color:

Source: http://www.concreteideas.com/contractor/concrete-repair-nashville

And the stamped/stained concrete will look similar to this to hopefully tie in our red brick coping around the pool:

Source: Cedar Park Concrete