Spring 2023 One Room Challenge- Weeks 1 & 2

We are cleaning up our backyard and creating outdoor living spaces. This spring we have taken on the One Room Challenge, which is 8 weeks to change up or create a space or room in your home.

The Project:

We have chosen to create a patio oasis and build a pergola for an outdoor hangout spot for our family. We love to spend time outside in the sunshine and fresh air. It just makes us happy. We’ll need seating, lighting, curtains and of course the pergola it’s self.

Getting started:

As you can see, this space is overgrown, outdated and in need of some major TLC. Last Fall Jess and I attended a social media conference in Waco, TX. Stopping by Magnolia Square is a must, and it is there we gained a lot of inspiration for our backyard.

As you can see, there’s no grass- it’s all rocks, gravel, bushes and trees in the backyard. Now that we had our inspiration, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Trimming, cutting down, removing all kinds of plants, then removing their trunks and root systems.

What Comes Next:

The next thing we did was remove most of the rocks. Then mark out the spot and bring in fill dirt. This space is definitely not level. Jess then measured and built the form for the new patio to come off of the current patio. He also ran a water line under the new patio. Once the forms were in place, fill dirt was added.

Finishing Phase 1:

The last thing to do in this phase, besides taking all the cut down limbs to green waste, is to add the fill gravel. Jess purchased some from a local company, brought it home and dumped it on our back driveway, then filled the patio space to the top of the form with the gravel.

This completes weeks 1 and 2 of the One Room Challenge. We hope you’ll stick around for all 8 rounds and see what we create in this space. You can see more of the rooms and spaces being transformed this Spring at https://www.oneroomchallenge.com/home Tell us what would you put under a pergola?

Much love,

Joleen & Jess