You have no idea how long I have been waiting for this moment and actually having a patio area. We bought our house almost 4 years ago now, but as most of it needed quite a bit of updating, we needed to decide which projects were more important. Sadly garden was always considered a luxury and was left last on our long list. Having finished most of the bedrooms, the bathroom and our major kitchen renovation, we decided it was now time to start planning and finally create a beautiful space for us to enjoy in the garden.
We started planning our garden project last year. I started pinning ideas on my Pinterest board. I loved the idea of beautiful smooth timber privacy screen and a nice seating area with a nice fire pit, perhaps a nice projector screen where we could watch a movie. As always I was more interested in the design and the aesthetics of the project.. Shaun was concentrating on the practicalities, drainage for the water and the groundworks.
I really loved the beautiful smooth timbers for the privacy screen, which I wanted to paint black. We have an existing fence which I was planning on painting black too. I really wanted the timbers to be tight together so that no one could see though the screen.. But then the voice of reason (Shaun) said that we need to keep a gap in between the timbers to allow the wind to get through.. As it gets quite windy on the island (who would have thought?) and we want the screen to survive the gale force winds we get on the island.. I guess this is a compromise I will have to make!
I don’t think this will surprise you but we didn’t really set a budget for the project (our motto – the cheaper the better works) and weren’t really sure what to do exactly. As our garden is on a slight slope we knew we would have to have one area which would be higher than the other. We also knew we wanted to have slabs instead of timber (this meant more cost but less maintenance once it was done). At first I was looking at large square slabs, tried to work the area and the cost.. It would cost a fortune! *why oh why I have expensive taste?*
Don’t forget to follow me on instagram to see behind the scenes and our progress!!
Then by sheer luck we contacted a local company to enquire about brochure for garden slabs and ended up getting a great deal on these gorgeous slabs! This meant that we actually had more slabs than we needed for the patio area, double the amount!
After a few quick measurements we worked out that we will have enough to re-do the concrete paths at the back of the house too (YAY!)
So we had decided on a layout, the screen and had bought the slabs.. We knew we would be building this area to save the money and as Shaun works in groundworks, it made perfect sense for him to work out the flooding problem we had in the back garden!
When it rains (and let’s be honest it’s pretty often in the Isle of Man especially in the winter), the back garden floods as the water has nowhere to go. The water gathers on the path in big puddles just outside the house and ends up seeping in the foundations. Thankfully, Shaun knows his stuff so we designed the slab area with aco channels running in between. The slabs will also be running on a slight slope, which will allow the water to run straight into aco channels, which will be connected to the drain pipe.
We were hoping to start the first stage during the Easter Weekend.. and then the Covid-19 pandemic happened and all our plans changed.
Great article! Thanks for the tips about patio makeover.