When you consider road construction and increased traffic, it's easy to picture parts of progress in North Texas that are not pretty.
With more people pouring into the region for job growth and a still, relatively, affordable housing market, contractors are finding a market to bring some additional pleasing visual aesthetics to new homes.
Synthetic lawns are beginning to pop up in more and more yards in North Texas, even during a time without any drought conditions.
Winter Moore sees it firsthand.
"Our business over the last couple years has just gone straight up," he says. "It's been incredible."
Moore has operated WinterGreen Synthetic Grass in Tarrant County for the last four years.
He now estimates the synthetic lawn industry across the Metroplex at well over $20 million a year, with plenty of competition throughout the area, especially east of Arlington.
"This is really big in Dallas," Moore said. "Fort Worth is starting to catch up. Many of my customers have moved here from California and Arizona and they are used to a synthetic lawn, they prefer it. I love the transformation to take a really average backyard and make it perfect."
Perfection is not cheap, with most projects costing close $10 per square foot, but Moore says home builders are working to work the upfront cost of a synthetic lawn into a mortgage. The strategy saves homebuyers upfront costs and allows for more water conservation and less lawn maintenance.
Moore adds resistance from many homeowners associations (HOA's) towards artificial lawns has begun to ease as the technology and look of the product has improved in recent years.
"This is not the stuff you used to see at grandma and grandpa's house," Moore said. "It's come a long way since then."