Splash Pad
The homeowners had considered moving west for their love of winter sports but opted to stay in their Hudson colonial home on 8 acres and keep the kids in their schools. To still cater to their active lifestyle, they decided to transform their small, woodsy backyard into a recreation space of their own.
“It was way too small and way too rustic for the family’s needs,” says Jeff Conn, the landscape architect with Suncrest Gardens in Peninsula who oversaw the project.
In 2019, Suncrest removed their 500-square-foot bluestone patio that connects to a barn, which a previous homeowner had dismantled and moved from Connecticut as an addition to the home’s living space. They installed a new 3,000-square-foot paver patio, incorporating the barn in the design and adding a pool and grill area, as well as what ended up being many amenities for relaxation and entertainment.
“This one evolved,” Conn says. “There were a lot of things that weren’t planned but were suggested by the kids, and like good parents, they said, OK, we’ll do them all.”
Here’s how the Suncrest team opened up an exciting backyard space for activity and fun.
New Territory: Most of the backyard was woods, which didn’t drain well and contributed to the presence of many insects. “The mosquitoes were real bad,” Conn says. The team cut down trees, de-stumped and installed drainage that not only allowed them to massively expand the patio but also the lawn for cornhole, frisbee, badminton and other activities, as well as gazing onto the pastures of the horse farm on the property.
Pool and Hot Tub: Both were must-haves for the homeowners, and the team used shotcrete, a concrete mixture shot into place with a pressurized applicator, over rebar to quickly build a 14-by-18-foot pool and hot tub in about two weeks. Plus, the pool and hot tub are used past the summer, so heating coils were put in under the Belgard Mega-Libre pavers to create a heated walkway from the home. Higher gas capacity had to be added to the house for that, as well as for the gas grill and fire pit. “We added a million BTUs,” Conn says.
Entertaining: The family wanted a space to entertain parties of up to 30 people, so sitting areas for conversation were key. There’s one next to the barn door, and there’s also one surrounding a large raised gas-powered fire pit with cedar accents. “It’s a great winter type of a thing to have,” Conn says.
Cedar Accents: To make the cedar barn that's stained black blend in with the updates, designers went to great lengths to incorporate lots of cedar. “The materials we chose were to extend the feeling that it was a farm/barn type of landscape,” Conn says. For example, the grill area features sandstone-topped counters underneath a pergola made from barn beams painstakingly sourced. “We actually had to go to Carrollton to get wood from a deconstructed barn to make it match,” he says.