Patio Project

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.

This was even after I cleaned it up a bit

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.

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.

Finished project

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?