252 Los Alamos

When we first arrived, this Mesa property was a tangle of weeds and overgrown brush — and it had a real problem. Sitting downhill from the neighboring lot, the side yard ran wet year-round; the homeowner, Judy, called it 'the wet side of the house' — perpetually damp, and even a little stale. So we designed the entire project around water first.

We re-graded everything to slope back and away, angled even the walkways a hair, and ran a dry creek bed — set lower at the front than the back — to carry runoff through. An oversized six-inch K-gutter and downspout plume straight into it; today it's lined with native Santa Barbara moss that thrives on the one window of afternoon light the side yard gets. A second dry creek runs beneath the driveway and daylights to the street, a clean overflow that skips the permit-required curb cut entirely.

On the surface, the finishes are the story. The 'flagstone' people always ask about is actually stamped, color-grouted decorative concrete in a warm sandstone tone — textured and grouted so convincingly that the real Arizona Buff flagstone set beside it matches seamlessly. Four-inch Arizona Buff caps accent the smooth-stucco walls that frame the property, and a recent callback added a handsome Arizona Buff pass-through out in the parkway.

A whimsical, intentionally-curved walkway flanks the dry creek, and a mature yucca we chose to keep, rather than remove, anchors the front as a sculptural focal point. Heavy-gauge metal gates — keyed and built so they never warp — handle privacy and access. Out back, six years of growth has created an oasis: a Hass avocado now around eleven feet and fruiting, a monarch-drawing butterfly bush, rosemary and lavender within arm's reach, an espalier lemon screening the neighbors, and strategically placed boulders that double as seating, one even studded with fossilized seashells.

We veneered the old cinder-block walls in sandstone, stepped them to follow the grade, and added privacy fencing and ipe decks front and back. Six years on, the planting has filled in, the birds have moved in, and the client is thrilled — and we're still back for the occasional cleanup. That's exactly how a landscape this considered should age.