Have you ever wished you were kicking back in paradise? Maybe, you envision yourself laying in the shade on a warm day, sunlight glittering through the trees and the smell of cooking food wafting lazily around you. Who hasn’t, right? Well one day, my partner and I took this particular daydream a little too seriously. As sure as Alice tumbled her way into Wonderland, we too have discovered the true potential of our own backyard. Though quite frankly, I envy her apparent lack of effort to get there.
Let’s be honest, our backyard in our little mountain eden was pretty sad. Its position relative to everything (house, trees, mountainside, etc) meant that the area was relatively unusable. Grass was sparse and mostly weeds. It never dried fully so it was always muddy. And even worse than being unusable, it was actually a major pain as it was the most obvious area for the kids to play.
Rather than living with it, we decided to upgrade it into a space that welcomes. Here’s what we did to get paradise right outside our backdoor. We broke the different phases of the project up into weekends, as we both work full-time during the week.
In the beginning, we tilled. We don’t own a tiller so we found a local company we could rent from. We called and were able to pick it up that day, and because my men are amazing, we dropped it off again just a few hours later.
Once the space was cleared we were able to schedule the delivery of stones from Hipps, another local business. By the very next weekend, we were able to start laying the stones, fitting them together like puzzle pieces. When I tell you how long it took two people to lay the first full pallet, its going to blow your mind. Three hours was all that was required for phase two to be completed.
Because of the underwhelming strain of the task, and because it just looked so darn good, we decided to order another pallet of stones, and make the patio even larger. Laying the stones turned out to be an unexpectedly fun job. Because it was July, we worked through blistering sun and cooling rain, we drank beer and grilled out, all the while getting to laugh and play together.
By the third weekend, the patio was almost complete. All that remained was to fill it. We drilled some holes around the edges and put up tiki torches (its NC the mosquitoes can eat a man whole). My clever man put together a couple picnic tables, and then fashioned them to fit my requests. We also bought several plants of different types and sizes, but all very tropical in theme. Voila, we now have a tiki lounge in our backyard.
Though we split the work up into weekends, it really only took 4 separate days to complete. By the end of July, we were welcoming family and friends for our first-ever tiki party! We chose to host a low country broil complete, with fresh raw oysters and Alaskan King Crab Legs that we sourced from our friends at The Lobster Trap. They were kind enough to help us but have since streamlined the process by adding a take-home clam bake to their menu. People were blown away by what we were able to accomplish, but none more-so than myself. We took a space that was sad and unusable and turned it into the one place everyone wants to be.
This project was fun, inspiring, and even confidence-building. I’m already daydreaming about projects for the future to spread the pleasure we found on our patio to all areas of our home. Are there any spaces in your life that aren’t making you happy? If so, I want to hear about your ideas and plans for creating your own personal paradise.