Patio: The Big Reveal (finally)

Before I get into any details. Let's do the old "Before" & "After":

Before

Pre-purchase Shit Hole.

After

Today. Ah, much better!

Holy Transformation, right? Looking back on that before shot, I'm pretty sure our Realtor roofied us prior to the contract signing. Nothing else explains it.

Inspiration

<--This was my inspiration photo for the backyard. I remember saving this image and just thinking that this project seemed so far away.

Before we started, we could not hangout in the backyard AT ALL! There were dangerous piles, totally overgrown invasive plants, and no divider from the alley we share with our neighbors. In short, it was a shit hole.

We still haven't put up the hammock, but now, 4+ years after we bought this old [crack] house, the backyard has been conquered!

Panorama

I'm not going to go over each area, but here is a view from above: [click on it to enlarge]

From left: wild flower planting area, BBQ area, stair, butterfly bush surround seating, sitting & firepit area.

Franca obviously loves it out there. When she's not walking on the seat walls, she's digging in the rocks or running around the yard or on top of my plants.

More Before

Here's another Before & After looking from the alley:

Pre-purchase. Rots-ville.

During back porch renovation

Back porch complete. Yard still a jungle.

More After

Today looking from alley.

Today

Details

Sweet little hand. More info.

Patio as "Ode to Concrete". More info.

Parking spot, fence & yard. (Gates missing.)

Recyled Concrete "chunks" re-purposed as a wall. More info.

Gravel and the ill-fated paving stones.
Even before I had the time to blog about it, we decided to remove the paving stones.
They made the gravel bed too deep and hard to walk on, and they themselves posed a trip hazard.

Franca climbs up the wall, loving the now thinner gravel bed.

Stoop! More Info.

Leftovers

Because nothing is ever 100% done, here are the still outstanding items:

Making 4 Fence Gates.
Regrade around house. [Marc has started.]
Make firepit and find chairs. [Fun!]
Clean up junk piles still left in back.

A list of only 4 things?? It makes me about cry. I don't think I've ever made a list so short! We really busted our arses during the HOTTEST time of the year and it feels so terrific to only have 4 things left to do.

These past 2 weeks since the [almost] completion have been heavenly. The weather here has been great and we've had the best time just chilling with Franca and having fun. [Oh, and like NOT shoveling gravel, NOT mixing concrete and NOT lugging concrete chunks around.]

*********Backyard, consider yourself conquered!*********

My next post will be a "What We Learned", so please comment your questions or um...comments? Thx.