Here are some before pictures of the back yard...

Notice the mini-bobcat in the upper left corner... yes,this is a large project. It will probably span the next few weeks. I'll keep y'all posted on the progress.

As part of this project,we are having two good sized retaining walls built which will span the width of the back yard. The space itself is about 3,000 sq. ft. in total. including the patio. Our back yard and property in general is much bigger than the backyard and lot at our last house by about 1,000 sq. ft. but we've found less of it to be usable because of the slope, albeit gentle.

We are basically creating three distinct levels one being the patio and the other two being tiers above. The dog run (off to the left out of the picture) will keep the dogs out of the majority of the yard. They will still have the entire length of our property being over 100 ft. and a large fenced area under the shade of the Mulberry tree in the above right corner. My large, raised Winter garden bed is getting a foot of depth added to it which will make it easier for me to access and better for the plants that will go in there. The upper tier will contain tan bark and a large play structure with an enclosed fort, slide, monkey bars and swings. The structure will be placed under the shade of the massive plum tree which shades the left half of that tier. The middle tier will have a sitting area under another impressive shade tree which is also on the left side of the yard. We will put some nice landscaping around the sitting area and make it semi-private and difficult to see from the lower patio area. There will be some furniture in this area such as benches and a small bistro table and chairs. Needless to say it will take me some time to fill up these tiers with plants and objects d' art but it will be a fun to create the space from scratch and we'll finally have a totally usable, kid friendly and dog proofed space.