Our concrete patio is (mostly) done!

July 26, 2019

It's an exciting day at our house! The patio is (pretty much) done! 

I shared our plan for a concrete patio a couple months ago -- there was a long lead time before they could get out and install, which is to be expected. Check that post out to see the design I drew up for the space! 

I mentioned in that post that I have one main goal with our new backyard -- LOW maintenance. I don't want much wood we have to stain every few years, I don't want pavers that we have to weed all the time...I just want plain, basic concrete. ;) 

We already have an awesome covered porch where we spend a lot of time: 
Covered patio with four chairs

But we always knew we'd want more of an outdoor space. We are so lucky because this backyard is so much bigger than our last one -- we have so much space to work with! We waited on a patio until we knew exactly what we wanted to do. 

They finished up the patio today, so for now we can just look at it. ;) I'm SO stinking excited to get stuff moved on here!: 


Brushed concrete patio with fire pit

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Large basic concrete patio with fire pit circle

This weekend we'll be able to walk on it, and next week they'll remove the debris and the forms around the edge of the concrete.

I know many of you were surprised we went with basic concrete, but I love it! I prefer the simple look to most stamped designs I've seen. 

This round fire pit spot is our favorite! They built a hole with a drainage pipe that runs to the back of the patio, which is great: 
Concrete patio with round fire pit area

Eventually we plan to add a seating wall around the patio on this spot. Because of the slope in our yard it is higher here than anywhere else. 

The main part of the patio is about 15 by 30 feet and the fire pit circle is 14 feet across. 

I know it's not much to look at now, but I can see it all dressed up in my head!:
Large concrete patio

Here's a peek at the items we picked for the patio. Since the stores are mostly sold out of outdoor furniture already, I went with this inexpensive outdoor wood table I found online:
Wood outdoor table metal legs

It had great reviews for the most part so I have high hopes. I'll update you when I get it put together! 

I found these wicker folding chairs at Target the other day and grabbed up the last four: 
Blue and white folding outdoor chairs

Super cute right? I hope they work well with the table. They weren't cheap so I'm keeping the tags on in case I find something less expensive. 

We had a retaining wall and fire pit quoted for the round area and they came back with a price almost double what we paid for the patio! Whoa. Instead we bought this DIY fire pit kit from Menards: 

DIY fire pit kit

It looks pretty easy so hopefully we can get that set up quickly and get some fires going!

I've told you all before how excited I am to start planting again...and I can barely wait! We hope to have the grass dug up around the patio once I decide on a plan for the landscape -- I hope in the next week or two. 

The landscaping will be expensive so it will happen over time. Thankfully we've hit the timing just right because a lot of perennials will be on sale soon. The fall is a great time to plant so I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty again! 

We also plan to add the same outdoor string lighting we had at the last house. These lights are simply the best and I have a plan to hang them over the patio:
The best outdoor string lights

Again, I hope to do that before the fall! I can't wait to start tackling all of these projects! 

I'll be sure to share the patio as everything gets added. Can't wait to start lugging everything out of the garage that we've had in there for two years. ;)



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Comments

  1. Your back patio already looks great! I am sure you will love having the firepit. We put one in this year and my kids and friends have used it almost every night in the past couple of weeks. Enjoy your weekend!
    Shelley

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  2. I'm envious. The patio looks great. Can you tell me more about the lighter lines around the edges of the concrete? Was this a design feature you requested or just the manner in which your contractor finishes his edges? Can you explain or give me a link to the contractor so I can inquire? Many thanks, Betty

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  3. Be careful with the table. We bought that exact one last summer and it already looks really bad with cupped and warped boards. Make sure you keep it covered even in the summer, we didn’t, and just a couple of rains and it looks really bad. Not good with the elements. Don’t want to burst your bubble, but I thought it looked really good too. Just want you to be better prepared than we were Can’t wait to see what you do to complete it!

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  4. I can't wait to see the result! I also love the simplicity of the concrete!

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  5. I'm so glad I found your post. We are currently extending our patio and it's going to look almost identical to yours with the added round. However, I'm struggling with what size that should be. Would you mind telling me the diameter of your fire pit area? It looks to be the perfect size. Also, our contractor was trying to tell us that the area in the middle needs to be like four feet wide to hold the wood. That sounds way too big to me. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. I think it's 12 feet across? Could be ten, but no smaller. The fire pit hole is around inches. Four feet is WAY too big, unless you want the whole thing sunken into the patio. Decide on your firepit kit size before determining the actual burning area. Hope that helps!

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  6. Thanks so much! I guessed 12 ft. Glad to see I was on track. And we are going with 2 ft. in the middle. :)

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