Making a Patio Oasis Out of Our Old House Fixer-Upper

Old house fixer upper yard before the patio and garage

Before we even closed on our property we had gone through the process of confirming with the city building department that our plan to change the zoning on our historic property was going to be approved. The zoning officials requirement that we have two parking spaces on our own lot meant we had lots of work to do! Not only had we managed to obtain an easement agreement from the next door neighbor, but we had drawn up detailed plans and gotten estimates on a huge renovation of the backyard – before we actually bought the property!

how to plan for a backyard patio project

how to engineer a backyard patio excavation

Here was the plan - First we would need to raise the level of our land 4’ in order to create the proper pitch for rain water to run towards the street (through a new parking pad that we would need to create). By doing this we were then committing to a sunken patio. We figured at this point we might as well go for broke and requested permits to build a two-story garage, as well. This was also a negotiating factor for my husband, John. His dream of getting back into working on classic cars (this had been one of his hobbies when we first met in college) in retirement meant that this house was the perfect choice for BOTH of us!

how to plan a back yard for patio excavation and foundation

backyard excavation and foundation footings

how to create a backyard patio in historic downtown

But it also meant that a large portion of our budget would be taken up by this huge endeavor – first the excavation and foundations, then the patio work, then paving, sidewalks and eventually our garage.

Once we closed and assessed the interior needs of the house – we had to keep progressing forward on the plans for the exterior. I was in charge of the site plans while my husband took over designing his “big baby” – his new 2-story, two-car garage. We had to be very careful to make all this fit into our small lot size. It was a delicate balance between the impervious ground cover and paved areas. Everything was measure to the inch so I could make sure we had enough patio area to entertainment and John made sure I could still make the turn into the future garage. Every inch counted!