How would you redo your backyard if someone handed you, oh let's say, $20,000?

It's the exciting predicament that Tom and Heather Carroll are facing this spring.

Should they light up their walkways? Redo the hardscrabble patio? Beautify the pond? Fix up the kids' play area? Jazz up the redwood deck and spa? Trim and thin the oak brush?

The Carrolls got into this pickle by winning the grand prize in the 2007 Malibu's Outdoor Living Sweepstakes. They received a $15,000 check, plus an additional $5,000 that will go for outdoor lighting and installation, patio furniture and a barbecue.

Their name was drawn from more than 1 million entrants, company officials said.

All this good luck was visited upon the Carrolls because Heather didn't know what color to paint her family room. She was browsing the HGTV Web site last summer, checking out decorator paint colors, when she ran across an ad for the outdoor lighting company's contest.

"All I did was click on it and fill out the entry," she says.

Weeks later, the couple and their four kids were driving home from vacation when they got a call from her father, who was dog-sitting at their house.

"Dad said that a man had called saying he had good news. I didn't know what it was about, but I called the number."

She couldn't believe her ears and started scribbling notes on a piece of paper as he talked: Malibu. $20,000. Patio furniture.

"Tom was driving and couldn't figure out what I was doing," she says with a laugh. "I never thought I would win. We are so excited."

The makeover of their Rockrimmon-area yard has been a hot topic of discussion for months. The company had planned to start work last fall, but delayed until this spring.

"The season got away from us and we thought there would be snow," says Natalie Scholberg, a spokeswoman for Illinois-based Intermatic Inc., which makes Malibu brand lighting. She's been out to see the Carroll yard twice and do some preliminary planning.

"I really don't think we could have found a more perfect winner. And it's just a beautiful location in the foothills. You can see Pikes Peak from the yard," Scholberg says. "They had no true landscaping, but it has a lot of hidden potential: a steep driveway without lights, a play set out in the outer end of the yard in the sunshine which will be good for solar lighting, a pond that could use some pond lights."

The Carrolls purchased the house four years ago after moving here from California. They've been concentrating on the interior, although Heather Carroll eventually wanted to tackle the yard. But she didn't know where to start.

"If you look at it as one big project, it is overwhelming: Where do you start, how far can money go?" Scholberg says. The best way to approach large projects is to break the yard down into simple pieces "one bite at a time," she advises.

A big area of concern is backyard lighting. When Carroll walks the dog at night, she is afraid she'll run into deer, fox and the other wildlife that travel through her open backyard. "It's pitch black out back," she says.

She also wants better lighting on her deck, as well as a spiffed-up seating area and fire pit. A second patio below now houses a children's toy house; that has to go, she says. She'd like to see it as a cozy retreat area.

She also wants to place stepping stone paths in strategic areas rimmed with lighting, and light the steep front driveway.

Even though they won the sweepstakes, the Carrolls are still responsible for selecting a contractor for the nonlighting work. But they can use their $15,000 grand-prize to pay for the materials and other expenses.

"We are going to do a lot of the labor ourselves," she says. Experts from Malibu will help with lighting.

"The idea is to show that lighting doesn't have to cost much and it can be done by the homeowner," Scholberg says.

Carroll doesn't want to get things under way until she knows just how much money she will have. She has to do her 2007 taxes first, and the sweepstakes winnings are considered to be income.

"We are really excited to get going," she says. "I've never really won anything."

And no, she still hasn't figured out what color to paint her family room.

TO OUR READERS: The Gazette will follow the Carrolls' yard transformation through completion, and we'll publish more photos when the work is finished.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0371 or carol.mcgraw@gazette.com 

ENTER SWEEPSTAKES

The 2008 Malibu Outdoor Living $20,000 Sweepstakes begins Friday. There are two ways to enter:

• Visit Malibulights.com and complete an online entry form. Online entries must be received and recorded by 11:59 p.m. Central Time, July 15.

• Hand-print your name, complete address, phone number and e-mail address on a piece of paper no larger than 8 1/2-by-11-inches, and mail in a first-class stamped envelope to: Malibu Outdoor Living $20,000 Sweepstakes, P.O. Box 408190, Chicago, IL 60640-8190. Entries must be postmarked by July 16 and received by July 21.

WARNING: There are a bunch of other important contest rules, including who is eligible, so be sure to check Malibulights.com for the details before entering.

In addition to the grand-prize winner, three first-place winners will be selected to receive $500 in Malibu products. A random drawing will take place in late July.