By the time I installed the basketball goal, winter was approaching, and I decided to hold off until spring to take the next step—installing the electrical, lights, fan, and speakers. First up is installing the rigid conduit required outside in Illinois to each of the 6 posts and the areas I wanted outdoor outlets. Then…
Tag: Backyard
Backyard Patio Structure: Steps
When our old patio was removed, they took out the concrete poured steps as well, which meant we had no steps for quite some time coming out of the back of our house. Inconvenient, and a little dangerous. Our original plan was to go with stone steps that mimicked the look below all of our…
Backyard Patio Structure: Roof
Once the framing was complete, next step was putting a roof on it! I used tongue and groove boards because I wanted that look on the inside. After debating several different ways of running boards, I decided while framing on a pattern that resembled a pattern in nature—a leaf. This made the angles a little…
Backyard Patio Structure: Patio
After the fireplace and posts were finished, I started framing, but right as I started framing, the patio contractor was ready to start. First up was remove the existing concrete patio, and once that plus the steps were gone and they laid the stone foundation, it became clear how big of an expansion the new…
Backyard Patio Structure: Fireplace
Once we had all the preparation complete with the water line, electrical, and speaker conduit, it was time for our fireplace! We talked about what we want, and our mason laid out the elevation in conjunction with our patio paver, who wanted to have a specific pitch from the house. Initial layout was an exciting…
Backyard Patio Structure: Modeling
As I was thinking about what kind of patio structure to build, we had used an Ez-Up canopy the summer before to think about the shade patterns to determine where and what shape to create. I knew that I had to keep the size under a certain limit to comply with our towns regulations, so…
Our Pond
Our pond is thriving in 2020, and includes 13 named fish, and many more. Plus, we’ve hosted ducks, two sets of frogs (and their tadpoles) and numerous birds that enjoy the pond and stream for a drink or a bath. While most of our plants came back from last year, we are always looking to…
Our Patio Structure
A few years ago, we created a new patio with a fireplace, pavers, and a covered structure. Designing and working to bring it all together was a fun and challenging endeavor. Figuring out how to build the hybrid “gazebo” combined with a peak roof required starting with many iterations in drawings, a 1/12 scale model,…
Jeff Staley 