The Patio

When we moved into our home six years ago, my husband, Craig, and I knew we had a little problem.  We love being outdoors.  Relaxing on the patio of our last home was a favorite pastime in the summer.  But our new home was lacking any type of outdoor sitting space.  Surprisingly, there wasn't a patio, deck or gazebo.  Nothing.  We tried putting our patio set on the grass but it just wasn't comfortable.  So, we looked at the lot and decided exactly where a patio should sit.  This is what we started with -

And this is what we have now - 

What an improvement!  The transformation took a couple of years - as we did it in stages.  First we dug out the old white stone and added the patio.  As you can see in the old picture, there was some flagstone around the small tree (which was dead).  Although I couldn't save the tree,  I did save the flagstone and reused it in front of the shed (you can see that here) and around a few bushes I planted (check them out here).

We also made improvements to the sunroom addition.  We replaced the rotted windows - 

And we removed the ugly brown vinyl siding (which was is in terrible condition) and replaced it with stone - 

The stone look great against the brick in the original part of the house.  We also added a privacy fence - 

Which really makes the patio a peaceful retreat.  It's easy to forget that the driveway is just on the other side of that fence!  We really enjoy family dinners out here (see that centerpiece?  I explained how I made that here) - 

With summer winding down, we are trying to squeeze every minute out of this space.  It's always a little sad when we pack up the patio furniture.

I've shared this project here - Remodelaholic, Funky Junk Interiors