Hillside Full Remodel
A full front- and backyard remodel for a hillside home in Trabuco Canyon — drought-tolerant planting, terraced stone steps, and a complete HOA design package for architectural review.
Trabuco Canyon, CA
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What the homeowner wanted.
Deliver a cohesive full-property landscape remodel in Trabuco Canyon — front yard curb appeal and a usable backyard — packaged for the community's HOA architectural review with one coordinated submittal.
Site conditions and constraints.
A strict HOA design committee with detailed submittal requirements, a sloped hillside lot demanding terraced grade transitions, and a homeowner who wanted a unified look across front and back without two separate review cycles.
How we resolved it.
A single master plan covering both yards: agave and lavender massings against bluestone driveway bands in front, terraced stone steps stepping up to the entry, and a backyard outdoor living zone tied together with the same planting palette and hardscape language. The full HOA package — site plan, planting plan, elevations, material board, and renderings — was assembled for a single review submission.
How the project actually unfolded.
The owners had finished the home's exterior remodel and were staring at builder-grade landscaping that didn't match the architecture. They'd been told by two contractors that the HOA submittal alone would be a multi-month back-and-forth. They wanted one design partner to handle both yards and the entire HOA package end to end.
We walked the property twice — once at street level for the front, once on the hillside terraces for the back — and built one master plan that read as a single project. Olive and date palms anchored the front composition; agave, lavender, and grasses softened the bluestone driveway and step terraces; the backyard carried the same palette into a quieter outdoor living layout that respected the hillside grade.
The HOA package went in as a single coordinated submittal: site plan, planting plan, hardscape details, material board, and a street-view rendering. The architectural committee approved on the first pass with no revisions, and the contractor built directly from the plan set.
What changed for the homeowner.
A fully remodeled front and backyard that reads as one continuous design, approved by the HOA on the first submission. Water use dropped substantially against the prior turf-and-shrub layout, and the homeowners gained a hillside backyard they actually use.
Inside the hillside full remodel.
Renderings, plans, and finished views from the Trabuco Canyon, CA project — each captioned with what it shows and why it mattered.
More front yard design work.
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