The back yard was "fenced" by dry and dying tall hedge ficus plants, the "lawn" was full of weeds. The floor of the covered porch and a walkway were red brick.

I removed the ficuses that were almost dead, designed a fence to be horizontal and that was our first idea to try black color. After that we did the house black too.

After:

At the end we decided to build a deck for a hot tub and sunbathing

We got rid of the brick and poured Large 500 sq ft floor for the covered patio that we closed in and connected to the house (next post). The concrete step is floating with lights underneath, looks great at night.

We planted 3 of these "Travelers" palms along the fence with large Mexican Pebble Beach rocks in between the turf and the fence. We also poured few concrete pads for lounge/sitting/dining areas.

Before: