Marcus Delvecchio · May 30, 2026
Last fall, I finished a 400-square-foot flagstone patio behind my house. Fifteen years of outdoor builds, and this one finally came together exactly how I pictured it. The problem? Once the sun dropped below the tree line, everyone went inside….
Marcus Delvecchio · May 13, 2026
If you’ve been putting off a backyard upgrade because you think it has to be expensive or complicated, let me stop you right there. Learning how to build a fire pit is genuinely one of the highest-impact projects you can…
Marcus Delvecchio · March 26, 2026
The shift toward native planting has been the best thing to happen to residential landscaping in a generation — not because of trends, but because properties that work with their local ecosystem stop fighting their environment. Less irrigation, less replacement,…
Marcus Delvecchio · March 25, 2026
Landscape lighting is one of those installs that looks simple from the outside and gets complicated fast. Voltage drop, junction placement, fixture spacing — most homeowners who go the DIY route end up with a system that works fine for…
Marcus Delvecchio · March 24, 2026
It wasn’t until 2019, after watching a neighbor’s brand-new fire pit table sink unevenly into their composite deck, that I realized how many people treat these installations like furniture instead of structures. The table looked flawless in the photos they’d shown me before delivery—gleaming surface, professional finish, the whole package—but nobody had thought about weight … Read more
Marcus Delvecchio · March 23, 2026
The best outdoor spaces I’ve designed work because they were planned like rooms, not like yards. Defined zones, traffic flow, a clear focal point, materials that connect to the interior of the house — these aren’t aesthetic choices, they’re functional…
Marcus Delvecchio · March 22, 2026
If there’s one thing I learned the hard way, it’s that everything needs to be level or everything becomes a future problem. Doesn’t matter if it’s a paver base, a deck joist, a pergola post — if you don’t fix the pitch on day one, water finds a way to remind you every single spring … Read more