Backyard #1 - Patio extension and fire pit.

Since my son is home and helping me out for a few weeks, I am trying to get a whole bunch of heavy work done in our backyard. Here is my "master plan" for things I want to add this summer:

Extend the patio along the back of the house, and make it about 10 feet deep.

Cover the patio with a roof (asphalt comp) that matches the existing roof - 18 ft wide and about 8 feet deep.

Put an under-deck rain cover under our main deck (10' x 30'), and possibly under our bedroom deck (8' x 14').

Build a fire pit

Build a series of terraced stone walls for a raised-bed garden up the hill to our garden shed.

We started off by pouring the patio, and extending it over to the stairs that lead to the upper deck.


This ended up being about 180 sq ft at 4" deep, which translates to 140 bags of 60# quikcrete. It basically took a full day to mix, pour and finish it all. We are keeping the concrete wet and covered with tarps for a week, so that it cures properly.

Luckily, I have a small cement mixer. Mixing all that by hand would have been way too much work.



Here is the portion of the patio we will cover over. We also tore out the old sliding glass door and put french doors in. The pre-hung units actually go in fiarly easily.


Here is the foundation for the fire pit...


It's not very pretty right now, but its round, level and solid. The rain-drain line that we put in the yard runs directly under this (about a 18" down), and is back-filled with gravel. This will become the drain path for water put, once we dig the cover dirt out and fill the bottom with gravel.

This picture shows where the fire will be located - about 20 feet off the deck with a good view of the woods.


I am still deciding what material to build the fire pit out off. Most likey it will be covered with some extra stone I have from other projects.