Sorry I haven't posted in forever, but I finally have something worth posting. When we moved into our house, the yard was a little lacking. They had just torn up the water main so there was a huge pile of dirt and rocks in the front, I fixed that. A wind storm had just come in and knocked over two trees, I fixed that. There was a giant dead tree trunk in the back, I fixed that. And don't forget about the abandoned chicken coop equipped with an overgrown sandbox. I fixed that too. Then I put in a garden, planted some stuff, tried to get my grass looking nice, all at different levels of success. My latest project though was a bit more ambitious. I had this space of nothingness to work with.
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| This was even after I cleaned it up a bit |
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| Different angle |
So I had an eye sore on my hands. I didn't like the chain link fence or the terrible rock garden I had in the corner of the house. I also didn't have a decent place to put my grill that my brother had bought me as a house warming gift. That little nook-type corner of the house was essentially unusable. The houses on our street were all built in the late '40s and so all of them had this same terrible L design with an unfinished corner. Many of the houses have blown out the two walls and finished the corner, but I didn't have the skills or the money to tackle that project. So I decided to build a patio and a pergola.
The first question I got when I explained my idea was this: what is a pergola? Understandable, but once you see one you know exactly what it is, you just may not have known that those wooden structures have a name.
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| Generic pergola |
When you search Google images, this is the first picture that comes up for "pergola". It is a simple outdoor wood covering. It can over a deck, a patio, or anything else really. It gives a good deal of shade and a great place to have a meal outside. And I wanted it!
So I got it.
And here it is.
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| Finished project |
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| Notice the fancy solar lights |
This project was a beast, but I am very happy with the result. I'm excited for next summer when we will get to really use it. So what do you think? Did I improve the space, or would you have preferred an overgrown rock garden?
