Renovate Your Home: Before & After Photos

The Elliott family of Brookhaven wanted to add a pool and pool house to their home on Mabry Road and contacted Totally Dependable Contracting Services to get the job done. The company collaborated with Olympic Atlanta Pool & Spa to create this dramatic outdoor living and entertaining space. The pool house turned into a two-story guesthouse with full kitchen, multi-media room, two full baths and a bedroom. The Elliotts are using the space as a retreat for themselves, a recreation room for the family, a haven for their teenage kids and a guesthouse for visitors. The exterior features include a small sitting porch, stacked stone to match the stone used at the pool deck and chimney of the outdoor fireplace. The owner-supplied antique front door, colorful stained glass windows, and eclectic light fixtures add charming appeal to this casual, lively environment.

Foxgloves and Ivy owners Larry Hammack and Greg Brown purchased this home in East Atlanta in 2000 and began extensive lawn renovations in 2001. As you can see their hard work has paid off in an oasis of green and color.

Here's what Larry Hammack had to say about the renovation:

Our garden inspiration or style is more akin to English cottage style…lots of plants, no real formality and always room for another plant.  Perennials make up the bulk of our plant list, evergreens & deciduous – annuals are added for seasonal color.  Greg usually picks a particular color scheme or plant for the annuals – this year, it is the year of the pelargonium, or as most people call them, geraniums. 

We have ivy geraniums (remind us of European gardens), standard zonal geraniums and Martha Washington geraniums.  While attending Penn State, Greg actually worked on the development of the Martha Washington geranium.   Many of our plants are for attracting birds into the garden...we love hearing & watching them.  The obligatory chipmunks, squirrels and field mice also have the run of the place since the dogs, Petunia & Hershey, stay in the house during the day (don’t let that out – don’t want any burglars) . 

Our potager garden supplies tomatoes, onions (just harvested), blueberries, peaches, strawberries and cut flowers – mainly dahlias.  There are a few stray potatoes that managed to reappear from last year – no problem, we like potatoes.  We rarely use any chemical – preferring to use natural alternatives to pest control & management – occasionally, I will use a bit of herbicide to eradicate the weeds & grass from the pea gravel driveways… and the renegade Campsis that continues to pester our backyard!  The backyard has our propagation area and compost piles.