One fear that we frequently encounter from homeowners when building in the hills is how to break up a high foundation in the backyard. I wanted to show you a picture of a house that had that same problem and how we tackled it. Just so you know, this home's outdoor living is 6' out of the ground. It makes for an awesome view, but if we don't plan appropriately, it can feel like you have a sheer wall there. I have a motto that I like to "use what the land gives us". You could also say "make lemonade out of lemons". We decided to add planter walls in varying heights to offset the sheer wall descent that we would have had if we had left it alone. Now I'm not going to lie to you, this is not cheap. I think as a rough ballpark planter walls, done right with concrete bricks and concrete footer as a base can run in this case as high as $10-12,000 all in. That stings when you're writing the check, but the finished product is well worth it in my opinion. In fact, I think the back of the home in some ways is more beautiful than the front of the home. As in all home building, you have to look at ROI, and ultimately do you feel like you gain a return on certain decisions. In this case I think so. Of course the ultimate validation was this home won a Summit Award for best landscaping in all of San Antonio for 2010. Remember, you can make anything look amazing if you use what the land gives you.
