The Story of the Courtyard

This story starts out with a picture or maybe two or three.  When we moved into our house in Walker we noticed how everyone seemed to come a long way to go to the front door.  There is no door on the side of the house where the drive is so mostly they walked back down the drive to the sidewalk then up the across to the house walk and up to the front door.  There is a gate to the back yard right on the drive but there was a section of grass that was usually soggy you had to walk across until you got to the concrete pool deck and on to the patio and back door.  So what do you do to make an easy access from the gate to the pool deck?

You beg, bribe or just steal a grandson and one of his pals and you make a courtyard with a walk connecting to the pool deck.  Harry and I found a nursery in Mandeville that had some pavers and I enlisted Christopher and a pal and we laid a courtyard and moved the fountain from the front yard to the center of the courtyard.  Then we created flower beds all around.  Harry built an arbor for the walk.
I don't have many before and during pics because they were on my computer that crashed and burned last year.  Here is what I do have.

The first is the backyard when we bought the property.

The second is another view of the backyard.  The courtyard starts between the end of the house (the garage) and the shop and occupies that area

This is the area between the shop and the house.

Now you enter the courtyard from the drive. The picture
at the beginning is what the bed on the right looked in
 2010 right after the courtyard was finished.

The original "Pot Tree".  It changes each season.  

This picture shows the same area as the photo above with two
of my grandsons.  Now the shop connects with the courtyard.

This is the walk between the courtyard and the pool deck.

This is the fountain that was in front of the large window
in the front yard now moved to the courtyard.

Pool deck now connects to courtyard and sidewalk
to covered patio.

I'll add some pics in the next post that shows the garden as it has progressed.