Now on to the yard (even though we're not finished in the house)

So, just in case you think I don't have enough to do (picking colors, sanding, painting, staining, moving in...) they start digging the pool next week. The pool shape is set but the patios, plantings, etc., are not finalized. This year is the backyard. Hopefully with more money we will do the front yard next year.

Many years ago I met a period landscape designer. She is designing for us an 1850 garden for modern living. We will use plants found in the Boston area in 1850 or earlier. Also the shapes of gardens, patios, hardscape, etc will be from that era. Normally the pool would be rectangular but we had a lot of setback restrictions so we squeezed what we could into the yard. The salt water pool is 41' x 27' in a somewhat "L" shape. We have a "sun shelf" at the small end for the little ones (about 18" deep). The long part of the pool is mostly 3' to 4.5' for basketball and volleyball. At the very end is ~6.5' deep. We will have a heater plus some water and light features. John's in charge of the details (I had enough on my plate with the house).

Here's the 1st draft with gardens, patios, etc. At the far end on the right will be our vegetable garden. I had to cut and paste and then resize so it may be a little off but you should get the idea.

Here's the pool depth - the far 2 on the right are 6.5' deep. The next 2 (up and down) are 4.5' deep, the next 2 are the corner are 4' deep and then 3.5' and finally 3' at the stairs. One stair wraps around into a bench. There's a swim out in the deep end with a bench. The at bottom of the picture is the "sun shelf" and 2 steps into that shallow end.

You can see some of our setback restrictions on the below.