Very happy with how our backyard mega project came out!  This is a long post with lots of chronological pictures but I put the best 2 of the after in the beginning. We bought our place a little over a year ago and knew the yard needed work.  Overgrown trees dangerously close to the house.  Weeds, burrs, pricker bushes taller than me.  Very small patch of grass.  Steep hill, odd shape lot. But a very nice house in a good neighborhood, so worth it in the end. 

Started with a plan and then many iterations during construction even.  The landscaping contractor did large boulder retaining walls, steps with lights, patio landing with lit seating wall, lower paver patio, upper fire pit patio with lit seating wall, patio base for shed, brick edging, rock, mulch, downspouts, and close to 100 plants/shrubs.  Other major thing was a much bigger grass area, which required a lot of fill. Besides these guysvworking every day, had different contractors for tree removal , stump grinding, deck extension, wood fence, irrigation, electricians for lighting and outlets behind firepit and under deck. I had to do a bit of coordination but thankfully I work from home.

I DIY'd drip irrigation, vinyl shed, wire fence, and conduit pipes under patios, steps, walls, irrigation, and downspout leads.  Conduit was key for coordination-ran multiple irrigation lines, electrical, in this conduit under finished areas and still have extra just in case.  I installed 50 ft of it w/pull string and my ISP pulled fiber (this 1 run crosses irrigation 3x, downspout lead, retaining wall).

Things that went wrong-cut fiber twice (was never marked), fence contractor made ruts and dumped rocky soil over finished mulch, and lawn got a fungal infection. Decision I wish I did different- Irrigation has 3 zones that are plants drip+grass sprinkler.  I wish I had them seperate, issues with over/under watering plants vs grass.  That would have made 9 zones though. Given a project of this scale, really not much bad stuff. We'll be in our local parade of homes! 

Backyard mega project: firepit, walls,and steps