Backyard Landscaping for Your New Home: Five Questions to Ask

Whether you’re considering a new Shea Home, are in process of planning the outdoor living space for your new home, or you just want to spruce up your current backyard, we’ve got you covered. As a Shea Homes® homeowner, you have a few options when it comes to designing your backyard. Let these questions guide you toward a backyard that truly suits your lifestyle.

• Do you want to landscape before or after you move in?

If you’d like to move in with the backyard finished and ready to entertain, our sales team will connect you with talented landscape architects we partner with to craft your dream space and roll all associated landscaping costs into your new home mortgage. Otherwise, depending on the guidelines from your Homeowners Association, you could wait a few months to get a feel for the space and decide how you’d like to personalize your yard later.

• Do you want to hire the professionals or do it yourself?

If you decide you’d rather wait until you’re settled into your home to figure out exactly how you’d like to design your outdoor living space, your decision-making isn’t over! You can still contract with a landscaping firm or putt in the effort for a true DIY project the whole family can get involved in. Each option has its merits; collaborate with the expertise of a landscaping firm to design your backyard and let them do the rest, or dream it up yourself and get to work. This method takes a little know-how, but an end result that you imagined and built yourself can be supremely satisfying.

• How big is your canvas?

The size and shape of your backyard will be one of the biggest factors in how you design it. A shallow backyard like in the Altair model above is great for grilling and entertaining, but won’t accommodate an Olympic-sized diving pool. Consider a putting green or a play pool to better fit what you have. Deeper backyards offer more choices, like in the Spark model. You could choose a pool big enough to fill the yard, or go with additional seating. The options are entirely yours, but it’s vital to understand the space you’re working with before making any decisions.

• What’s your budget?

Save yourself a headache later but determining a budget up front, and allocating your funds on the elements that you will most enjoy in your space. If a pool is your priority, spend the money to get that just the way you like it, and use your remaining budget to spruce up the rest of the yard. Know you want a barbeque station but not sure if you want rock or turf? Get that grilling station up and running, then decide how best to spend from there. Once you have your key pieces in place, it’s much easier to decide where to budget and where to spend.

• How will you use the space?

Think about how you will use your outdoor living space. Is it for barbequing and entertaining? Swimming and sunning? Maybe it’s lawn games and putting practice? Take some time to decide what this space is going to be used for and design with that function at the core of everything. Deciding ahead of time how you’ll use the space will keep your design focused on what matters and let everything else fall into place around that. Take the Excite model above – clearly built to entertain, once you decide where the seating and fireplace goes, it’s as simple as filling in the rest.

Designing your backyard is one of the most exciting and fulfilling parts of the home buying process. Whether you’re doing it at the start of the journey or diving into the DIY side of things after your build is complete, the backyard is often that final step to making a new house feel like your new home.

And you’re never alone! Our amazing community representatives are always eager to answer questions and spark new ideas. So, get in touch with your communities’ Shea representative and let them show you what the Shea Difference is all about!

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