COLORADO SPRINGS — Day after day, the UPS workers arrived at the Rockrimmon neighborhood home of Tom and Heather Carroll, bearing packages of all shapes and sizes.
It looked as if maybe the Carrolls had gone wild on the Home Shopping Network.
Next came the platoon of shovel-wielding, patio-pouring, tree-trimming, flower-planting workmen.
Then the hosts of “Junk’d,” a home-improvement TV show, accompanied by two cameramen and a sound guy, appeared on their doorstep. Soon, lighting experts from Chicago with a photographer in tow joined them. They opened those UPS packages to reveal dozens and dozens of Malibu lights.
One in a million
In April 2007, the Carrolls won the $20,000 grand prize in the 2007 Malibu’s Outdoor Living Sweepstakes. Their name had been drawn from more than 1 million entrants, company officials said.
Heather Carroll had been browsing the HGTV website looking for paint colors for her living room when she saw an ad for the outdoor-lighting company contest.
The transformation of their yard is now complete. Even though they won the contest last year, the crews waited for good weather to do the work.
“We love it. We really do,” Heather Carroll said.
She said she especially likes that the makeover emphasizes the natural look of the property.
“A fun surprise”
She didn’t know they were going to be on “Junk’d” until the last minute.
“It was a fun surprise,” she said.
Malibu is one of the show sponsors. The episode featuring the Carrolls will air this month.
Brad Hauter and Bret Skipper, co-hosts of “Junk’d,” and the crew did most of the makeover. From Indiana, Hauter was awed by the mountain view in the backyard.
The yard had no coordinated landscaping, but there was hidden potential, including a pond, sunny areas where solar lights could be placed and a stand of scrub oak.
The most important advice Hauter has for anyone doing a yard makeover: Understand your family’s needs.
“It’s a mistake we see over and over,” Hauter said. “People see something on TV and spend time and money to duplicate it, and it doesn’t fit in.”
The best way to achieve a perfect yard is to divide it into activity areas, he said. The yard already had a deck for barbecuing, a kids play area and a quiet area graced with a fountain and pond.
The main thing missing from the yard was an “adult zone,” Hauter said.
So their makeover focused on a new patio. The workers carved the mini-oasis out in an area of scrub oak, where there was ugly undergrowth and a plastic playhouse.
The new patio is made of multicolored pavers. Near the property line, they planted nine arborvitaes to provide a privacy hedge. The drought-resistant evergreen has attractive, soft foliage that lends to the relaxing atmosphere.
The Carrolls chose heavy wrought-iron patio furniture that includes a luxurious double lounge with cushions in shades of spice and brown.
“We have so much wind up here that we wanted something that wouldn’t blow around the yard,” Heather Carroll said.
Much of the work entailed removing overgrown landscaping. The scrub oak near the house was thinned to improve the view of the mountains and provide a better view of the kids’ play area from the house.
Straggly grasses and brush were cleared out under the trees and throughout the property.
New plantings around the yard included an assortment of drought-tolerant grasses, several accent bedding areas for flowers such as lavender, dahlias and roses. Also added were five ash trees, a red maple and numerous types of bushes and vegetation, which gave the yard a casual, but tidier look.
The biggest change came through placement of the Malibu lighting.
The property now boasts lights everywhere, helping to turn the yard into a soothing retreat.
