Patio Grading
Future Outdoor Kitchen and Bar

About the Photo Sequence
My tax return (after solar install) funded the patio grading project. The thought started with the idea of a new hot tub, and placing it 75 feet from the house, off the existing patio. Once I got estimates, and saw that the hot tub will have to wait, I got more elaborate with the patio design. It's cut into the hill, and up 4'. It was graded for the hot tub, an outdoor klitchen and bar, and a sitting area. The real expensive part is next. This essay documents the grading for the patio.


  
Photo Details
This photo sequence contains 13 frames. Each landscape frame is a finite 1600 pixels wide but height was left to its own based on the crop. I based the picture size on an email program's display window asuming that the picture would not be automatically resized to fit. This technique kept the file size down, the largest being 1704k making it easy to send and receive through email. All photos were taken with a Nikon D810 or my Samsung A52 cell phone.

Download Photo Project


2024-04-23-PatioGrading.zip - 16540898 bytes.


Patio Grading
Future Outdoor Kitchen and Bar

With the house at my back and looking NW, this is how the land sloped upwards.
Accessable? Sure. But useless. This shows where I want the hot tub.


Looking for an area to place my firewood bins, I tried to dig this out years ago.
The decomposed granite (DG) didn't cooperate.
Even a pick-axe was too much for me. So there it sat like this for years.


Here's another look right off the existing patio.
That's a lot of dirt to move with a shovel!


Let's get started! Bobcat Grading - Coarsegold, CA. (559) 908-9737
Yes, I highly recommend him!
Here, he's already leveled the sitting area, and still carving.


Some kind of laser leveling going on here.


The firewood bins will be placed here. Not ready yet.


The two firewood bins are 4' x 8' x roughly 5' tall and will now fit here.
They hold a cord each.


This little pathway goes from the hot tub to the gully in the yard.
I call it Ave P.


The dirt was moved to the area in front of the garden tarps and bench. I call that area The Perch.
The rest went beyond that, widening the driveway in prep for maneuvering a 5th Wheel trailer around that shipping container.


The finished product! I can use it as an open sitting area for now. Eventually it'll be tiled or concreted.


It even has a ramp!
Now picture this: A large gazebo on the right containing a kitchen and a bar.
I might need to dig further back to have room for both.
A sitting area in the middle, and the hot tub on the left.


There will be a retaining wall in front separating the patio from Ave P.


There's the firewood bins, empty. They fit PERFECTLY!!
The doggie run fence is connected to the bin on the right making it secure.