From My *Back* Porch Lookin' In

Clay and I are project people.  We love to watch HGTV and all those crazy shows where people totally renovate their property.  Consequently some of the charms of this house was the improvements we envisioned.  We loved the house to start with but even more we loved the potential!

One major project we saw right away was a back patio.  The original "patio" space was enclosed by the builder at the original owner's request to make a second office (which I love) but that left a house with no outdoor living space.  And with 3/4 of an acre it was a total waste to have a backyard without any place to hang out.

We also knew we wanted a large outdoor space and when my friend's wife came over to discuss options we talked about doing a multi-stage project that would eventually include a fire pit and lots of hanging out space.  This spring we finally had enough saved to contract out the job.  We met with a guy whose work we had really liked and he sketched up a plan for a 600sf outdoor living space.  He also convinced us to use paver stones (we originally thought stamped concrete) because as we develop additional phases of the back patio we can pull up some stones or add on stones and in the end we'll have a seamless look.

So without further adiue!

 The delivery of materials created quite a stir in the neighborhood.  It looked like we were building a fortress!

The backyard before...

Additionally, everyone in Oklahoma owes us $1 for busting the drought.  Prior to starting this project Oklahoma was experiencing the worst drought since the dustbowl.  As luck would have it, the week before our project began we had a 3" downpour.  And subsequently had an additional 1-2" of rain each week of the project.  Originally the patio was supposed to take a week to build but with all the rain delays it took 3 weeks.  But since we busted the drought we'll live with it.

Our yard was a disaster!!

They had to tarp the project several nights due to rain!

Moving in the gravel and sand. 
I think it took 5-6 loads of gravel and 2-3 loads of sand

It's starting to come together

Starting the retaining wall

Nearly done

After nearly 3 weeks the project was complete.  We are completely happy and love the addition to our yard.  Now we just have to find furniture *sigh*!

It's finished

The view!

We especially love the brick pattern.  When we were looking at the ideas book the example we were drawn to used two colors of bricks so that's what we went with.  We felt it blended into the house better.  Also the seat wall and steps have under lighting so you should see it at night.  Pretty!