Budget Breakdown: With $94K, They Turned Their Cracked Concrete L.A. Backyard Into a Serene Meadow

René Petersson grew up in Silver Lake. He remembers a time when the Los Angeles enclave was a secluded and tight-knit community, long before it became synonymous with trendsetting cool. When René and his husband, Michael Castagnetto, started looking at homes to buy on the east side, they both hoped to find a place that had retained its original character and felt tied to the past.

Before: Front Exterior

After: Front Exterior

"We had been feeling pretty worn down and uninspired by the sterility of the modern world, and we wanted a space with personality and a story," Michael says.

They found it in a Spanish-style home located in El Sereno, roughly 10 miles northeast of downtown, and they bought the property in February 2024. The pair of eye-catching arches at the front and the terra-cotta roof tiles gave the home a storybook quality, but the landscaping wasn’t as appealing. An expanse of concrete covered much of the generous plot, riddled with cracks that showed its age. The surrounding plants were overgrown and largely surviving off rain—a forecast that’s hard to come by in Southern California. René and Michael longed for their home to be a serene retreat, so they decided to address the site itself.

Before: Backyard