more outdoor space

There are three things we definitely don't like about our house.  The fact that it's on a slab is something that we just can't change. The second, the lack of storage space, is something we're continually working to fix.  And the third is our lack of outdoor space.  We have a very small backyard that has a decent slope to it, so it was a stretch putting two adirondack chairs and a fire pit out there on the tiny little slab.

Earlier this spring, we started to discussing what, if anything, we wanted to do to the backyard.  Our initial idea was to make the concrete slab larger.  But, CJ hasn't exactly poured concrete before, and we feared that it'd initially look nice, but then it'd crack or just wouldn't look right.  And while you each house has its own problems, you can usually hide the smaller ones.  A crack in the concrete pad out back?  Big red flag for future buyers.

When CJ's dad won the bid for the giant lumber pile, we thought we could do it for free. Then CJ decided it wouldn't work, so he priced out decks, and came up with one that was $1,500. And I said that wasn't going to happen. So we went back to the free lumber pile, and came up with this:

It's not quite done, but it's close enough to show off!  There are still some spots where we missed staining, and although the satin is supposed to have waterproofing in it as well, we want to put water sealer on top as well.  And there's a section of what used to be our garden that doesn't have any grass on it that's just odd looking, so we have to decide what to do there too.  We're now able to put our grill on the concrete slab, and we're able to move around and enjoy the backyard (well, we will once it cools off).

Want to know the best part?  We ended up doing it for less than $100 of our own cash!  We used the free lumber, plus we cashed in our points from using our debit card and got $200 in Home Depot gift cards in return.  We had to buy a few pieces of lumber ourselves, two gallons of solid stain and the pads to go along with it, and of course the screws, bolts, washers, and cement.  Not a bad deal at all!