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Hey, what about an alternative to a lawn, a space you can use as part of an outdoor
living entertainment space? You watched us design and build this house in 150 days, but
the work is far from over. We're about to jump into my favorite part of the process
of bringing all this together. Join me for an exclusive look right here on eHow Home.
You know, lawns take a lot of time. And if you think about it, over the course of a year,
you're spending a good bit of, well, resources on a lawn. So whenever there's an opportunity
to think outside the box and rather than having a front lawn, have a front garden or have
a front patio, which is what we've done here, it'll save time and money over time. The initial
expense, well, you're gonna have to spend something. I don't know what it would have
cost to turfed this area, but I do know what the stone cost me to lay it. I got this flagstone
-- it's all-natural, came from a local source, it cost per ton $150, and I get a 100 square
feet per ton. And what I have here is an area that's about 460 square feet. That's about
230 on this side, which runs from this wall up to this front of the porch, and from this
wall over to the walk, and then from that walk over to that wall. So these spaces are
symmetrical. So that's how much square footage we needed for this stone. This stone is about
2 to 3 inches thick. We set it on a bed loose soil like this, which has a good bit of sand
in it, so if I squeeze it it falls apart. Now the reason for this is that I want to
make sure that this drains really well because what we're gonna do is we're gonna plant ground
covers, a mixture of all kinds of ground covers in this space. Now think about it this way:
We're gonna have sort of a tapestry of low-lying plants, plants you can literally walk on.
And we've got this really interesting pattern going on now with these stones. They were
placed anywhere from 3 to 6 inches apart depending on the shape of the stone. So what we have
here is the floor of a garden room, which is defined by, well, the facade of the house
here, these wing walls on either side, and that retaining wall there. This is a great
place for entertaining. If you have a party, you could have it right out here in this garden
room. Hey, if you're enjoying these updates on how we're bringing the landscape together
here with the little cottage, check in with us regularly. Tell your friends, and subscribe
to eHow Home.