Finally, the Big Reveal: Before and After Back Patio

Earlier this year, I hinted on the blog about a BIG project that we taking on. I promised to post updates and pics, and then life got in the way and I completely failed at the task. In my effort to keep our 2012 Blog Book updated, I vowed to finish this project so here goes.

We moved into our current house almost 5 years ago. (Wow, has it already been that long?!) We fell in love with the home immediately, but we soon realized that it had one major flaw. It faces WEST. Living in Houston and dealing with the 100+ degree temps in the summertime is never a good thing when you live in a west-facing home, especially when the west-facing wall is covered with doors and windows. In addition to the heat problem, we have a very narrow back yard because most of our property lies on the sides of the house. We installed a fence around the back door when we moved in to protect the kids from the lake, so most of the actual backyard has been basically unusable and inaccessible for the entire time we've lived here.

After years of debating various solutions -- patios, awnings, upgraded windows, etc. -- we found a great contractor and began the project of building a back patio to partially block the summer heat/sun but also to provide a great outdoor living area to enhance the pool and lake views from our home. It was quite the project because our back door is literally 12 feet from the lake. Jeff and I designed what we thought was the ideal solution, and then our contractor expanded upon that and built exactly what we had in mind.

We knew we would love the new patio but it has been amazing to see how much actual outdoor living space we have added to the home. We completed the project months ago, but we're still debating on various finishing touches and ways to use the space (hence the reason why it has taken me so long to post this update). Jeff loves to fish in the lake and that is why we've kept the patio open to the lake below, but he's still working on some minor enhancements to finish it up completely. We are SO happy with the end result and so now we are finally ready to share the before and after pictures. So here goes...

Before -- A back wall full of windows and very narrow, unusable backyard.

Before -- Another backyard shot. You can see the bigger side yards on both sides of the house (pool on the left).

Before -- Grassy area to the right and a good shot of the narrow backyard that was fenced off and inaccessible. 

Before -- Nice landscaping but unusable area.

Before -- Final shot from the dock. You can see the fenced off sections. 

And now for the AFTERS!

After -- Look how the patio completely transformed the back of the home!

After -- I love that the patio blends so well, it looks like it was always a part of the house. It also has a seamless transition down to the pre-existing dock.

After -- Here's a shot from inside the patio. Look at all that extra living space!

After -- A side view from the pool. We still can't believe how much usable space we added to the yard.

I've been playing around with some new photo collage software and here's some neat side-by-side before/after shots I was able to create:

Some of the pics during the concrete phase:

And here's some during the construction phase:

It's so fun looking back and seeing the entire transformation! It only took me 6 months to do this update, that's not too bad, right?!