***This blog has been edited-
I no longer suggest this crew*****
I no longer suggest this crew*****
Remember a long time ago I talked about how we built french doors, and how we built a little bitty deck/walk out? Well, that was all in preparation for our future plans of outdoor entertaining. The problem was, we didn't know what this outdoor entertaining would look like! There are so many options! Just look at my pinterest board!
These were all options we threw around. Do we just throw down some new soil and grass for a nice side yard for kids to run around? But does that ruin the outdoor dining we want?
Or maybe we do one of these cool gravel side yards that would be super budget friendly and great for putting furniture out. But can you image the mess the leaves would make.....
Oh, what about about paving it. Here's a great tutorial on Young House Love......no....that's too much work. My back hurts just reading this tutorial...
OOOOhhhh....what about a whole outdoor ROOM that is covered and has a big beautiful fireplace and built in outdoor appliances?!?! Ha, I just built a REAL kitchen, we don't have money for that.
Ya see, our biggest problem is water. This part of the yard is pretty low and it's not uncommon for there to be some sitting water when it rains pretty heavily. Lucky, almost all of this ground is clay so it handles the water pretty well, however, not super ideal for grass. I could easily see this getting super gross after a rainy Friday, and ruining any outdoor fun for the rest of the weekend.
The super expensive outdoor rooms were also not an option. Sorry, I'm not spending 40k on some huge outdoor entertaining space when I still have to renovate the back half of my house. This is really happening people!
So genius husband George had a thought. I give credit where credit is due, and I give this to him (you are welcome...) "Hey Laura, hear me out...what if we built a deck?" Huh, a deck you say? Let me look on pinterest really quick and see what they say.....
Yeah, I can work with this. Still has that casual vibe I want, but I can dress this up. And my toddler can ride a little car on it since we still have a gravel driveway.
So the very next day we sat down and did some initial drawings. The space we were looking to do was everything from the house to the fence, so roughly 20 feet, and stretching all the way down to the end of the original house, which is 35 feet. That's roughly 700 sq/ft. Pretty substantial. We did have two air conditioning units to account for.
Here is a run down of the space.
When you are standing in the kitchen/dining (yes, I still love my kitchen floors), you look out the french doors to the existing deck. Off the little bitty deck is dirt and leaves. We're fancy like that.
Looking off of the deck to the left you just see more dirt and leaves and forgotten outdoor toys. Oh yeah, and two air conditioning units.
Wanna know a secret about those air conditioning units? They moved before I could even snag a picture before the contractor came to move them because this happened so fast!!!!! They used to be right in between where that cinder block and rusted paint can is. So literally, right next to the door.
Back to the story, so once we decided we wanted to do this deck we brainstormed some contractors. It just so happened that we had seen a contractor all over social media in Starkville, and some of our very good friends happened to use him for a project they recently had. They seemed happy with him so we called on an individual to come out to our house and give us a quote. I called him on a Tuesday. He came to my house on Wednesday. He steps on my back porch and interrupts me to say "Don't you want to move those air conditioning units? I mean, your deck would be a lot bigger, and much quieter if you moved those" Ok.....good point. Sure? But how much does that cost......."I'll have a quote for you tomorrow"
Sure enough, very next day he text messages me with the quote. Without you gettin toooo much in my business, it was a great deal. Seriously, it was about 5k less than we thought it would be, and that price included moving the units, as well as electrical for adding outdoor lights and outlets. ummm.....yes, please! So I type back "SOLD!! When can you start?" basically right away.
Friday morning as I'm leaving the house at 7am I see a man pull up in our driveway. "I'm just here to take a look at your AC units. I understand you want to move them." Yeah....we do, wow, his crew started quick! But surely they're just looking, not DOING anything yet. Nope, wrong again. I came back at lunch to find both units have been completely moved to their current location, a good 20 feet down, clear of the new deck.
That evening we also had all of the materials delivered for our deck.
Monday morning they were off to the races. I guess I should mention this was the Monday a week before Thanksgiving (so like 10 day until Turkey day) and my entire family would be coming to Starkville the next Tuesday. Both sets of parents, my oldest brother with his wife and kids, my middle brother with his now (YAAAAYYYYY!!!!) finance', and us. That's a lot of people, and my contractor PROMISED ME this would be absolutely done by Thanksgiving. Better be....because we'll be all about some outdoor dining people. I don't care if it's cold!
So Monday it started....
Day 1...wow, this is gonna be big...
Day 2...wow, really coming together...
Like, really.....
Day 3- WOW!!!!!
Day 4- I'm in love.
And by Monday the next week he was almost 100% done. Legit. I hired this guy on a Thursday morning and he was basically done with his project in under his time frame, and kept to his budget!!! All that was left was to cut down the posts and put in lights. We decided to hold off until after Thanksgiving since my family was due any second and we could work with what we had.
I mean, this is just a bunch of wood, and I can't love it anymore.
I can not say more good things about this contractor. I was very impressed with his ideas, his honestly, his patience, his communication, his workers. I was very happy with our experience and will most definitely be calling him back for future projects. ***We called him back for a future project and had the worse experience ever. He needs to stick to little jobs like doing decks and bathroom renovations.***
As for Thanksgiving, it was PERFECT!!!
Look at those smiling eating faces!!!
We even went out and got a fire pit while everyone was in town. Sure we didn't have real outdoor furniture yet, but those white folding chairs I borrowed from my office worked fine. The company was the best part.
A week later all of our outdoor furniture arrived and we were ready to start enjoying!
Safe to say the kids are enjoying it tremendously, and so are we!
This has literally become a new living space at our house. I can't even imagine my house without this awesome space!!!
