Honestly, my only regret is that we didn’t do this right from the start when we built this house. Maintaining a nice-looking, healthy lawn in our backyard has always been a struggle for us……in every house we’ve called home. We’ve been a two-dog family as long as we’ve been together. And two dogs can really wreak havoc on grass, especially so in the wet, winter months. And in our current home, our backyard sees quite a bit of shade which seemed to really compound the issue. So we decided to replace the grass with artificial turf, and I just wish we’d done it sooner!

A better blogger would have a before pic for you. 😉 But an installation progress shot will have to do instead. Trust me, the before was baaaaaadddd. To give you a good visual, I’ll say the grass inside the fenced area of our backyard looked more like a muddy mosh pit. Our dogs had done a really good job of trampling and kicking up grass, and the area under the stairs where it stays shaded was a no-grass zone where the mud was a huge issue. Basically, it was a mud pit with some patches of grass. And because we have a dog door, you can imagine how much of a maintenance nightmare it was inside our home.
But now……..

…..queue the Lion King’s theme song! Haha! That’s how I felt when I first saw the turf installed! I mean, it’s just SO MUCH BETTER!

It looks so much cleaner. You’ll notice we only turfed the area inside the fence. This is just what made the most sense to us. Artificial turf, while providing many cost-saving benefits like water conservation and low maintenance, is a fair expense upfront. So we decided to turf the area of the yard that was a problem and leave the natural grass outside the fence where our dogs can’t wreak havoc in peace.

I’m most excited about – no more muddy paws! No more tracking dirt and grass into the house! But also, fleas and ticks (and even mosquitos) shouldn’t be as much of a problem either! Plus, we’ll likely shave a little off our summer water bill, too!
And now, our backyard not only looks better, but it’s going to be so much more enjoyable for our whole family. My husband is most excited about this.

Might as well have a little fun with it, right?
Have you or would you ever consider artificial turf? If not for our dogs, I’m not sure we would have considered it. But I actually think even without pets having a practically maintenance-free yard is pretty appealing!
I’ve got a few more backyard projects that I’m excited to share in the coming months! Will you be working on any outdoor projects this spring and summer?
*Local friends. We used Lowcountry Artificial Turf, and they did an incredible job! This was not sponsored. I did some research, asked around, and got a few different quotes. My husband and I are really happy with the work they did and would definitely recommend them!
I wonder if you would consider not using the ‘struggle bus’ joke? you have such an amazing blog, with a large following. That joke pokes fun at young children with physical or developmental disabilities who need extra resources, and are sometimes required to take a different mode of transportation (like a shorter bus). somewhere over the years this has been referred to as a ‘struggle bus’. Please consider using your platform to help stop jokes such as these. thank you.