Shannon and David Logan of Avonworth Heights in the North Hills are addicted to home improvement television programs and always make it a point to attend local home improvement and decorating shows.

So when the couple and their four young children, ages five to 15, moved into their dream home seven years ago, they knew they wanted to do something special with their backyard. The question was what?

Shannon had an idea. Since both she and David, an obstetrician, each have large families and love to entertain, why not bring the indoors to the outdoors and make their backyard a Mecca of sorts for their family and friends of all ages?

That’s when Shannon went to work. She made a detailed sketch of what she wanted for their backyard. The couple then met with several landscape architects, but David said they really didn’t listen to what Shannon had to say, or pay attention to her sketch. Shannon was very specific about her goals and what she wanted and the contractors were just as determined to tell her that was not what she really wanted. The Logans were very frustrated by the time they met Keith Morris, an Oakdale landscape architect and president of K. Morris Landscape Design Inc., in the fall of 2007.

“Keith actually listened to what Shannon had to say and cared about what she wanted, even if it was something as small as a dog door,” David said.

For her backyard, Shannon had bigger things in mind than a simple dog door. The catch was that the Logan’s backyard had a steep drop-off. If Shannon and David were going to get their dream backyard, then several hundred tons of fill would have to be moved around to level out the lot. Keith assured the Logans that the yard could be leveled and Shannon could have her dream backyard.

“The kids lost their swing set and trampoline,” joked David. “We gave up the boat and the country club membership to do this.”

THE SWIMMING POOL

Shannon said one of the things David wanted for their dream backyard was a swimming pool. And he wanted as large a swimming pool as possible. Cheswick Pools built the Logan’s swimming pool.

“It was all his idea,” Shannon said of the swimming pool.

The shape of the swimming pool, the centerpiece of the couple’s stunning backyard paradise, can best be described as having a “Mickey Mouse” head and ears shape, quipped Shannon.

Situated off to the right side of the yard, the heated swimming pool itself measures 55 by 45 feet. The shallow end is 40 inches, while the deepest end, where a diving platform sits, is nine feet.

The Logans said, when the cement for the swimming pool surround was poured, it came out an extra inch or two too high to blend properly with the pool itself. To rectify this, Keith had special, decorative tiles added to the upper edge of the pool hiding the gap beautifully. Both David and Shannon say they couldn’t be more pleased with the results. Sometimes there really are happy accidents. It was no accident, however, that the material excavated for the pool was kept and reutilized to help shape and fill the steep slope of the yard and create a
lower level below the pool.

What makes the swimming pool different is that it is salt water, an idea Shannon said she got from her sister, who also has a salt-water swimming pool. With salt-water pools, the water is free of chemicals, hair doesn’t turn green from the chlorine and the bugs are kept away. “And your bathing suits don’t fall apart,” Shannon said.

“It’s not like the ocean,” said David, who keeps the temperature of the water at 74 degrees. “You can barely taste the salt water.”

The final effect of the pool is breathtaking. Without actually installing an infinity pool, which Shannon didn’t want because of the children, the sensation of a vanishing edge is still achieved. The valley below falls away and a stunning, panoramic view of the hills of Ben Avon Heights sweeps out unobstructed. A magnificent display of four-season beauty.

THE BACK PATIO

What the Logans both truly wanted was an area where they could entertain outdoors, rain or shine, warm or cool. A large portico was built out from the back of the house over the sliding glass kitchen door. The match to the house is so close, the portico looks like original construction.

Steps from the back door, Keith built the family a stone bar that seats four and includes a built-in Jenn-Air grill and refrigerator. The bar’s granite countertop was provided by Ultimate Granite Surfaces of Gibsonia. The portico ceiling includes a large fan, vent for the grill and built-in speakers for the 36-inch flat-screen television the couple mounts on the outside wall in warmer weather.

“We decided to include a refrigerator in the bar because with children you have to be prepared,” Shannon said.

Rounding out this portion of the project is the dog door located on the far side of the bar with stone steps leading to the yard that gives the couple’s two romping golden retrievers, Bailey and Molly, the ability to go in and out of the house as they please.

To give Shannon – the official life guard of the couple’s four children, Nick, 15; Gregory, 12; Cole, 8; and Maura, 5 - an unobstructed view of the pool area as she is sitting on the back patio, Keith removed two red-brick walls that stood on either side of a stairway leading down to the Logan’s basement. The walls, which were about three feet high, were replaced by similar-height black wrought-iron fencing. The fencing keeps children from stumbling down the basement steps and lets Shannon easily see her children in the swimming pool.

The covered, stone patio stretches out to a wide paved area with an open pergola overhead and a large stone fireplace, similar to what you might find in the American Southwest and not in Pittsburgh’s North Hills.

“They wanted a fireplace and gave me free reign to design it.” Keith said.

On either side of the substantial wood-burning fireplace, is an arched stone log storage area. The hearth ledge before the fireplace is deep enough to double as a seating space. Shannon and David have transformed this portion of their back patio into a sitting area with an outdoor coffee table separating two settees on either side. The Logans selected and bought their patio furniture from Home Depot keeping the look clean and simple. A touch of color is added with the seat cushions.

Tucked behind the fireplace are several striking, large boulders reclaimed from the Logan’s three–acre lot. Shannon decided to have the boulders placed behind the fireplace to give the children an additional play area and something to climb on.

To continue the play area for the children, the Logans had Keith level out a tiered area below the swimming pool. They then had Keith build stone stairs leading down to the children’s trampoline and Maura’s playhouse. Once again reutilizing existing materials, Keith saved nine of the couple’s Burning Bush plants displaced during the pool installation and transplanted them along the lower tier of the backyard where the trampoline now sits. He did the same with three existing forsythia bushes adding new plants only where necessary, something both Shannon and David appreciated very much.

For night time lighting, several stone pillars, matching the stone in the fireplace and patio’s retaining walls were constructed along the patio and pool area. At the urging of Keith, the Logans opted for small, traditional-style lights with frosted glass panels that give off a warm, subtle light as opposed to the glare of clear glass.

“I thought they would be too small at first,” said David as he turned the lights off and on. “But, they’re just right.”

PARADISE GAINED

Keith and his five-man crew began the $240,000 project – one of the largest projects ever taken by K. Morris Landscape Design Inc. - in March 2008 and finished in October 2008, when the swimming pool was completed.

“The lot led to a lot of creative design work,” Keith said. Indeed.

Keith and the Logans both said they enjoyed working together on the project and have no regrets about how anything turned out. Shannon said she would not change a thing and she was very pleased with the creative thinking that solved a number of problems as they inevitably arose.

Even with having four children to contend with during the seven-month construction period, Shannon said Keith’s crew made things easy. Indeed, at times they almost seemed to be part of the family.

“I have always been a hands-on person,” said Shannon, adding she was always asking Keith and his crew questions about how the various elements of the project were put together. In the end, owner and contractor working together brought an idea on a piece of paper to a full-sized, live-in dream come true.

The Logans said they can’t wait to christen the backyard this summer. Despite cooler temperatures earlier in the year, Shannon said their children have already used the swimming pool.

Even though the Logans have their backyard paradise, Shannon said the family will still take vacations.

“David works very hard,” Shannon said. “He needs to get away!” NH