Patio Fan Installed

More progress on the pavilion... we picked out the light and fan.
Then installed it and our neighbor came over to help us with the electrical hook-up.

The gray fan blades will look more cohesive once we paint the pavilion ceiling blue.  We can't do any painting on it for a year while the wood ages.  We plan to paint it complementary colors to the house.

I love that it has a timer!  I can put the light on for dinner time, set the timer and not have to worry about running back out to turn off the lights after I had cleared the table!

Patio Furniture Placement

With the pavilion up, I was anxious to get the new patio furniture up there (it was being stored in the barn all this time).

The electric is run to it, we just need to have it connected in the basement.

We also have to install the ceiling fan & light.

The landscaper will be back to finish the slate around the posts (they had to be left open so that the building inspector could check the footings).

I think we'll put the little fire pit on the one side, and eventually the grill will go on the other side (closest to the house).

We are finally getting to enjoy it a bit back here!

Putting up the Pavilion

This was the most exciting day... the pavilion was ready to be delivered & built!

I can't believe it only took them 1 day!

The building inspector came soon after to approve it- all went smoothly with that!

The builders did knock into the sundial and the bottom of the arrow broke off.  They immediately offered to pay for replacing that piece.  The piece is currently on back-order, so we will order it on our own when it is back in stock.

Planning the Backyard!

We have finally gotten around to doing some real work on the backyard!
We hired a landscaper to come up with a plan for us.

Our wish list included:

- Pavillion for a dining area

- Pathways and colonial style gardens

- An area in the center of the gardens for a sundial 

Below is the first draft that he came up with.  The house is on the left, the well house is on the right.  The structure in the middle would be the new pavilion.

It was a good start, and got us thinking more about how we'll use the space.  

We decided that we needed the following changes:

- Reduce the lower level patio area

- Move the pavilion a bit further away from the house (so that when you looked out the kitchen window you weren't looking right into it)

- We didn't like the stone wall coming off the back of the house

- We wanted a pathway to enter the middle of the back yard from the driveway

- Need a fence for the dog

- We wanted less of the lawn area, more gardens.  We have so much grassy area with the field, we don't need that in this section of the yard.

Some of the challenges of the space are:
- We want to keep the privacy fence (shown running along the top of the plans) but it is currently running on an angle, following the property line.  We'd like to square it off a bit to make this area of the backyard appear more symmetrical.
- The yard slopes down to the driveway.  We have to fill in some of it, but will still have to have steps in the walkway going up to the pavilion. It would be too steep to just have walkways.


Here's where we ended up for the hardscape...

And here's the latest plan that includes all of the plantings...