This was hands down the most backbreaking laborious project we have ever done. However, I would do it over again if it meant this was the outcome. I’ve dreamed of having an English inspired garden and patio for so many years and now I have it! A true dream. We believe we would have been quoted anywhere from $10k to $25k to hire professionals based on talking to a few people. That definitely wasn’t going to happen so we decided to roll up our sleeves and do the work ourselves. We spent under $3k total. You can skip to the cost breakdown or condensed process steps at the bottom of this post too. We knew the project was going to be a huge undertaking and even though we would ultimately save a ton of money, we would still be spending a hefty chunk, so we decided to tackle it in sections. This is what the backyard looked like when we first purchased the house. There was much to be desired. But we looked at it like a blank canvas ready to be painted. And that’s exactly what we did. Metaphorically speaking. The first thing we did was the landscaping. I wanted a large garden with all of my favorite flowers. I sketched it up and came up with the below picture. My goal is to not have to purchase hydrangeas or peonies ever again. I think next year that will become the reality. We only did this one side because we were still designing the patio. Next up was privacy trees. We initially planned on installing a shadow box privacy fence, but later found out that our HOA (home owners association) does not allow fences over 5 1/2 feet. We knew our dog would jump right over that so we decided on installing an invisible fence for our dog and hire landscapers to plant privacy trees on both sides. We ended up replacing the roof and gutters immediately after because they were 20+ years old. I also painted the existing doors black and changed out the hardware. We waited almost a year before we tackled the other side. Fast forward to Spring of the next year and it was time to start on the p