Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard
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Our backyard in Texas is a bit of a disaster and we need to do something practical with it. It'll be a long term project, but I am trying to come up with a solid plan for how to approach it. It's not a lot of space but we'd like to turn it from a totally useless plot of barely growing grass into a fun, attractive, multi-use space that we can really enjoy.
A few things that we would like to get out of it when all is said and done...
- A tiki bar. This is surprisingly important to us and we think that we can do it on the part that is against the garage.
- A fire pit. Maybe in the middle, maybe in the corner. No idea. But a nice place to sit for multiple people around a fire and talk, chill, read, etc.
- A fountain. Yes, we love running water and a water feature would make us happy.
- An office. This one is a long shot, but I'd really like a free-standing office structure in the back yard. I know that it is impractical and will take a lot of space but being able to completely escape the house and move a bit of my work stuff out there would be really great and would allow for isolating some of my work away from the house itself.
We don't care about having a dining area and we don't want any grass, we just don't have time to deal with grass and we find that we never eat outside. There is a spot in the front or side yard where a very small cafe table and two chairs could work out for what little outdoor eating / coffee we would want to do and of course the fire pit could be a place to chill with a glass of wine, no need for a table for that.
Of course we plan to add nice lighting to make the back yard fully useful 24 hours a day, right now it is just dark and/or lit with one spotlight that is insanely harsh. We will fix that. And we plan to add an outdoor wifi hotspot and speakers so that the whole yard is easy to use for music and work. We host a lot of parties and do a lot of work from home so lots of flexible workspaces are important. Right now we have three work from home people who live there and lots of others that use it from time to time and we expect this to expand dramatically so it could be very useful addressing this well.
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Some ideas that I liked..
This corner firepit idea is great. We have two trees, though, and each corner has one. So we'd have to work around that and it would be tough.
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This fountain is amazing and would be absolutely perfect to me as a center piece of the yard and be something that I would enjoy having for the look and sound and the kids would enjoy for playing in. It's Texas so we could use this like eight months of the year easily.
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Another little corner idea. Kid of a neat work space, but probably wouldn't fit or would have to be a part of the firepit area.
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Something like this would be perfect for the other corner...
I'd prefer something larger but space is at a premium so even this would be massive in the yard.
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This might actually work, too...
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
This might actually work, too...
I personally prefer this one
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@wirestyle22 said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
This might actually work, too...
I personally prefer this one
Me too.
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It's bigger though, so finding space for it is harder.
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
It's bigger though, so finding space for it is harder.
I like the design of it. Scale it a tad so that it fits in your yard. :-D
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
It's bigger though, so finding space for it is harder.
I guess the real question is do you want it to be for relaxation when you work or relaxation when you aren't working
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@wirestyle22 said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
It's bigger though, so finding space for it is harder.
I guess the real question is do you want it to be for relaxation when you work or relaxation when you aren't working
It's to be an office space. The larger one includes a small meeting space, which would be nice.
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@wirestyle22 said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
It's bigger though, so finding space for it is harder.
I guess the real question is do you want it to be for relaxation when you work or relaxation when you aren't working
Both? That'd make an excellent reading room.
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@dafyre said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@wirestyle22 said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
It's bigger though, so finding space for it is harder.
I guess the real question is do you want it to be for relaxation when you work or relaxation when you aren't working
Both? That'd make an excellent reading room.
Yeah, although I do have one of those now, so not critical. And there will be outdoor reading space by the firepit, so not necessary to duplicate here. But it's an option.
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This style could work too. I like the idea of a little garden or something on top.
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
This style could work too. I like the idea of a little garden or something on top.
"Hang on, honey, I gotta go mow the roof!"
or
"Call the gardener, the roof is overgrown again..."
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
This style could work too. I like the idea of a little garden or something on top.
Solar panels on the roof would be an interesting option.
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@coliver Especially in Texas where there is loads and loads of sunlight. Great idea.
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Even if the solar did nothing but power an AC unit all day, that would be enough.
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Wondering how much solar paneling is, just the paneling itself. I'm assuming the labor is $100/hour as with most things.
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
Even if the solar did nothing but power an AC unit all day, that would be enough.
Depending on the sqft of panels you may be able to just offset the AC unit costs a bit. I doubt it would pay for the entire thing.
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@wirestyle22 said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
Wondering how much solar paneling is, just the paneling itself. I'm assuming the labor is $100/hour as with most things.
I might be able to install myself. It's not a real roof or anything.
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@wirestyle22 said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
Wondering how much solar paneling is, just the paneling itself. I'm assuming the labor is $100/hour as with most things.
I might be able to install myself. It's not a real roof or anything.
I mean for myself :D We are planning on getting solar paneling but I'm not sure how much each panel costs to install labor and the panel itself.
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@wirestyle22 said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@wirestyle22 said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
Wondering how much solar paneling is, just the paneling itself. I'm assuming the labor is $100/hour as with most things.
I might be able to install myself. It's not a real roof or anything.
I mean for myself :D We are planning on getting solar paneling but I'm not sure how much each panel costs to install labor and the panel itself.
I've got roughly 2500 sq feet of roof... Guy who gave the estimate said he expected the cost to be around 40k.
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
This fountain is amazing and would be absolutely perfect to me as a center piece of the yard and be something that I would enjoy having for the look and sound and the kids would enjoy for playing in. It's Texas so we could use this like eight months of the year easily.
What's really nice is that you wouldn't loose a lot of water when not in use.
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@dafyre said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@wirestyle22 said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@wirestyle22 said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
Wondering how much solar paneling is, just the paneling itself. I'm assuming the labor is $100/hour as with most things.
I might be able to install myself. It's not a real roof or anything.
I mean for myself :D We are planning on getting solar paneling but I'm not sure how much each panel costs to install labor and the panel itself.
I've got roughly 2500 sq feet of roof... Guy who gave the estimate said he expected the cost to be around 40k.
I know that some power companies will actually reimburse you for half as well. We also had some government programs although with Trump thinking the EPA isn't needed I doubt we will see them for awhile.
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@Dashrender said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
This fountain is amazing and would be absolutely perfect to me as a center piece of the yard and be something that I would enjoy having for the look and sound and the kids would enjoy for playing in. It's Texas so we could use this like eight months of the year easily.
What's really nice is that you wouldn't loose a lot of water when not in use.
Right, that was part of the thinking. When it is on, it is on. When it is off, it just goes away. You can even pop a table of it and use it for dining space or whatever.
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Would need pictures of current backyard to really see what our options are.
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@NerdyDad said in Looking at Ideas for a Grassless Backyard:
Would need pictures of current backyard to really see what our options are.
You've seen it, right?
