Completed Patio Project

July of 2010 John & I decided that we wanted to rip up the sorry excuse for a patio that was behind our garage. It was rotten & overgrown with bushes & although it was meant to give us a little privacy, because it wasn't enclosed, it did anything but. So the project goes like most John & Gillian projects go... I bought John a new tool & he set to diligently work on it. But then I discovered that there was mold inside our bathroom (remember this post?) so we figured that the bathroom was more important & we spent the rest of our summer on our "marriage triathlon" of remodeling the bathroom & neglected our deck.

 John started to rip up the previous deck in July of 2010

 Ew. Rotten deck.

So we remodeled our bathroom instead & it turned out pretty nice. I told John at the beginning of this summer that all I wanted to do this summer (besides have a baby) was hang a load of fresh laundry out to dry, with a completed patio to protect/hide it, because really who wants their undies out for the world to see? John's dad was planning to come visit us & meet Ruby & he said that he would enjoy working with John on tis project, so we saved it for them to work on.

A year later, the space is cleared & John & his dad come up with a plan of attack to re-build the patio (I unfortunately neglected to take photos of the "jungle" before John, his mom, & brother cleared out the space this past August).

Coming up with a plan.

And here it is! It took them just a few days of hard work & it is quite the beefy little patio. I'm so glad they were able to work on this project together & combine their analytical (John) & free flowing (John's dad) styles to create something so wonderful.

This is the view of what you see when you walk back to our hidden little patio!

Voila! Isn't it beautiful?

I can't wait for the vines to grow back up the lattice! And now I have a spot to hang our laundry (there is a built-in clothes line on the siding of the house) & a place for us to grill & enjoy dinner in the privacy of our "yard."

Thank you guys so much for building this deck! Thanks for enduring painful legs & backs... hopefully it will be worth it for all the good times we'll be spending back there in the future.