The Before

So I've been plotting & planning to build a deck on the back of our house for over a year now.  Yet, last weekend, my sneaky husband managed to convince me that a patio would be:

1. easier
2. cheaper
3. quicker
4. and less maintenance

And since he's probably right on all counts (and volunteered to do most of the digging), I acquiesced.  However, I did insist on getting all the particulars my way to make up for it.

So we're planning a herringbone brick rectangular patio out back here, with a fieldstone retaining wall to the right of the back steps.  If you click on the photo, you can see that he's already started some digging where the retaining wall will be.  The man's got a lot of digging to do, as the finished patio will be level with the left corner, by the single window.

We're also going to add white latticework to the foundation around the windows, since grey concrete is not my idea of a lovely setting.  I'll try to grow some vines up the lattice and failing that, just pop some plant pots onto it with s-hooks (like here).  There's some wood-tone (but composite, so no maintenance) lattice planned for the back of the garage on the far right.  Oh, and more lattice will be made into a screen to hide the air conditioning unit by the basement door (this explains all the lattice we bought yesterday, right?).

We actually started on some of this today, so I wanted to post the "before" shot now.  Look out for progress photos and a final "after" at some point this summer!