badass bungalow    
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The house had lovely asbestos shingles covering the back sunroom additon of the house, not to be outdone by the equally lovley jalousie windows. Of course the in wall airconditioner is just an added accessory detail.One of the previous owners set up an old car port as a back yard gazebo. I must admit, I wouldn't have thought of that. To this day, I try not to think of it.There are people who make their living staging homes that are for sale. This is the way I viewed the house before I bought it. I love the artisticly casual arrangement of stuff all around the backyard and house. Of course no back yard is complete without a broken barbequeSO I had the whole mess razed. The only thing I kept was this lone palm and then we added the side fence.The neighbor behind me had an existing ficus hedge poking through the chain link fence. No one knew who the fence belonged to, so I just planted more ficus in front of it for a dense backdrop.Beginning the transformation! First we replaced the asbestos shingles with cedar clapboards. You have to be careful doing this, as there are environmental issues to consider.Next we substituted new double hung windows for the old Florida jalousie specials. I had a window added in the middle of the rear wall, creating a more pleasing back elevation as well as opening up the interior view. PAINTED!!!I wanted an outdoor room, so the paver guys built me a floor. I love foxtail palms, and was able to place some along the back of the house, creating a more shaded environment. The smaller palms are robellini, or pygmy date palms, whatever you want to call them. they have big thorns but are pretty.Then I started adding the walls to my outdoor room by setting double adonidia palms (Christmas palms) at each corner for shade and accent details.Filling in with ferns, begonias and bougainvillea along the fenceOne year after planting and this is what it looked like. As I said, instant gratification.I added a pergola over the "floor" of my outdoor room to create a ceiling and planted bougainvilleas at each corner post to grow up and over the top for shade. The landscape guys in south Florida clip ferns like hedges, I think it's weird, but what do I know?FINISHED!! My outdoor room - private and comfortabel. Wicker chairs from Kmart, and the store was nice enough to uncrate them, so I could fit them in my PT Cruiser. I found the coffee table and hanging wire planters on line, when I go back to Florida I will look in my files and list the vendors.
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Hard to believe, but the back was worse than the front. Only total annihilation would work in my grand scheme of landscape salvation. If these words seem extreme to you, LOOK at the before pictures. A previous owner had been a potter, and built some kind of a structure over most of the yard using utilitarian materials, but nothing of any aesthetic appeal. I waved my hand and it was GONE. Wouldn't it be great if construction projects were that easy? Not satisfied with that blemish, he or she dug some kind of a pit and lined it with stone.  Since everything in south Florida is level, my neighbors thought the depression and accompanying rocks were cool, but being a northerner and having seen my share of holes and rocks I got rid of them. I gave the people across the street the rocks for their yard, they were thrilled. When I garden around my house in Lexington Ma, these things grow in our soil like a perennial crop.