Outside the House

There have been some things going on outside the house here for the last couple of weeks that has garnered much of our attention.  On the side of the house we had a big wooden deck with some benches.  Instead of replacing the wood, as we would have had to do eventually,  we've had the deck removed, as well as the small concrete pad that was underneath it.  Below is a picture after that has been removed.

 We also had to take out some stairs from the upper deck and remove walls from the small shed that was underneath.

Dirt has been moved around and rock brought in as a retaining wall and steps.

The forms have been laid (you can see behind the chair) for concrete to be poured.  It will be stamped and  colored to match the rocks.  The large cylinder will eventually be a gas fire pit, but it won't be that tall.  In the end, we will have a nice patio. 

There will be more work for us to do, though.  We will have to re-do sprinklers around the area, put in some new plants, rebuild the shed and stairs and do some paving to connect the patio to the driveway.  More stuff on the to-do list!

I will post more pictures when it is completed.