Every summer, The Husband and I are involved in some project. We’ve
built a barn, vinyl sided a house and barn, installed wood flooring, built a
tavern room (named Black Wolf Tavern for the bar in my Maple Leaf Series and
for my werewolf of a black German Shepherd), landscaped properties, and constructed
a wood shed to name a few of our endeavors. This year’s summer adventure was
making a 500 square foot patio complete with a fire pit.
I’m always amazed at the thought that goes into these projects. The steps
are many and the order important. One doesn’t just slap a patio down. In our
case, a huge retaining wall had to be built of granite boulders. The wall had
to be backfilled and leveled then filled with gravel for drainage.
The fire pit came next so it would look as if it were built into the
patio itself. Pavers and bricks came together in a circle to contain many future
blazes. S’mores are on the horizon. The only way I’ll eat marshmallows.
A layer of stone dust topped that and finally the irregular flagstone
finished it off. Let me just say that irregular flagstone and OCD don’t mix. Yikes.
One has to release the idea of perfection and accept that if you want a wild,
woodsy look, you need to give up being particular about tight joints, patterns,
and precision leveling. That was hard for us, but we muddled through.
And the result is exactly what we pictured.
I love these projects. It’s how The Husband and I define fun. We’d
rather being doing things like this than sunbathing on some tropical beach
somewhere. Plus, it’s awesome exercise. We both feel great physically. All
those muscles ache just mean we’re alive and it’s good to be alive.
I’m eager to enjoy that patio and fire pit, especially in autumn,
surrounded by the reds, oranges, and yellows of the trees and our mountain
views. I also think the space will be conducive to writing with plenty of
stimulating landscape to spark my imagination. Nothing gets my Muse revved like
spending time in nature. Sometimes I think Mother Nature IS my Muse.
And I’m cool with that.
Summer is over now and school has started back up. I wonder what we’ll
build next year.
Have you been involved in any major projects? If so, what? If not, what
would you like to try your hand at?
Toodles,
Chris
www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com
