With $94K, they turned their cracked concrete backyard into a serene, no-mow meadow. René grew up in Silver Lake, and remembers a time when the enclave was a tight-knit community, before it became synonymous with trendsetting cool. So when renepetersson and his husband, mikeyclickclick, started looking at homes to buy, they both hoped for a place that retained its original character and felt tied to the past. “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 home 10 miles northeast of downtown. 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 appealing. An expanse of concrete covered much of the generous plot, riddled with cracks. The surrounding plants were overgrown and surviving off the inconsistent rain. The couple longed for their home to be a serene retreat, so they s...