Coles Hairston
There’s a lot of living designed into this urban backyard in Austin, Texas. Though the lot is only 5,820 square feet, its backyard provides everything the owners need for their social outdoor lifestyle.
That wasn’t always the case. Before they remodeled and expanded their 1,500-square-foot cottage, the couple rarely used the yard. There was no appealing connection from the house to the outdoors, the yard was dominated by a two-car-wide parking pad, and an unattractive apartment building loomed beyond the back fence.
The remodel designed by architect Jay Corder expanded the house and solved the outdoor dilemma. His scheme for a two-story addition occupies the side yard, confining the driveway to the front of the lot. On the ground level, the addition forms a breezeway that keeps the house from appearing monolithic and that links the front parking pad to the rear yard. That freed the entire 67-foot-wide backyard for the kind of outdoor spaces the clients needed for casual entertaining.
Corder’s plan includes a stepped-up, limestone-decked pool and spa that hug the new limestone fence that runs the width of the rear yard. He worked with an arborist to save the two huge pecan trees that shade the house and provide vertical privacy from neighboring residences. “Fortunately the trees have deep tap roots, not surface roots, so it was easier to work around them,” he said.
At the east end of the yard an outdoor kitchen, sided to match the system of Hardipanels and galvanized reveals that skin the addition, gives the owners the place for casual outdoor gatherings they desired. The kitchen is equipped with a 36-inch grill, 36-inch flat screen TV, Kegerator beer cooler, refrigerator, sink, and a bar where guests can sit. The little structure is open in the back to ventilate the grill.
Landscape architect Bill Bauer tied these features together with an ipé deck that was the missing puzzle piece between the house and backyard features. The deck stretches along the rear of the house and forms an al fresco dining space off the outdoor kitchen. He chose ipé for its low maintenance and sustainability, as well as for its rich color.
Because the yard is so shady, Bauer nixed the idea of a lawn. Instead he planted the space between the deck and the pool with mondo grass that has the same deep green of conventional lawn grasses. Limestone stepping stones link the deck to the pool.
Maintaining privacy was a big challenge on this tight lot. The pecan trees help shield the house and yard from the apartment building and neighbors, as do the cherry laurels the owners convinced their backyard neighbor to plant on his side of the rear fence. The small trees top the limestone fence, offering an additional degree of privacy for both homes. Bauer designed a solid fence of Hardiplank to buffer the east end of the lot and planted a non-invasive variety of bamboo for dense growth at the west end.
Corder made painstaking calculations and reshuffled elements to meet Austin’s strict guidelines for impervious cover. Drainage for the flat lot also had to be provided to move water away from the house. But the most difficult job may have been builder Royce Flourney’s. “The biggest challenges were having so little square footage and the client wanting to use lots of materials,” he says. As the addition was going up access to the rear yard became more restricted, so he had to engage in a constant process of coordination between construction and earthwork. The wide range of materials required multiple trades, who had to be scheduled to work in the small yard. And, of course, in such an intimate setting, neighbors had to be apprised and appeased. “We were in constant communication with them,” Flourney adds.
Everyone on the building team had a hand in solving this little urban puzzle. Now all the pieces fit into place to create a home the owners can enjoy inside and outside.
Project Credits
Builder: Texas Construction Co., Austin, Texas
Architect: Designhouse, Austin
Landscape architect: Gardens, Austin
Photographer: Coles Hairston
Illustrator: Harry Whitver
