You don’t have to achieve your dream all in one effort
Pacing yourself is very important. It’s everything when running a race, when doing a big project for work and can also be important when you’re remodeling your backyard space.
Archadeck deck design rendering Austin
Archadeck deck design rendering Austin
What is your dream for your backyard? Close your eyes for a couple minutes and concentrate on all the things you want that space to do for your family and what it might look like. Think about the landscaping, the furniture and whether the furniture sits on a deck or hardscape patio. Does your dream backyard include a spa or a pool? Do you need more shade like a pergola or covered porch? Do you need space to cook and entertain guests?
As a practical person, I too have a tough time with this question. As soon as I start envisioning the dream, the other side of my brain starts nagging at me to tone it down and be realistic. This mental tug-a-war can actually stop you from making progress toward the dream for years. It doesn’t hurt to envision the perfect backyard oasis. Mine would definitely include an outdoor fire pit with lots of room around it for many Adirondack chairs to sit in the evening with friends or family and enjoy hot chocolate in the colder months and an iced cocktail in the warmer months. That’s the thing about fire pits. They have a romanticism and mystique about them.
After capturing the dream, and if the dream is more than you can afford, then consider pacing the development of your dream backyard. A lot of my customers don’t realize that we actually can build outdoor living spaces in phases. For example, we can build a deck and go back a year later to add a patio. Maybe the ultimate plan has a outdoor kitchen on a wider section of the patio. You now have the opportunity to lay out the electrical and gas line for the kitchen under the patio, build the patio now, but hold off on the cost of the kitchen until next year. We do this with a number of our customers. After several years they look up and realize that their dream has been realized. Phased development makes a lot of sense for a lot of people.
The picture of the project you see above represents an addition to a multi-level deck. We build the top level and the mid level already. Now the customer is ready to add a spa deck so we are going back to add the 3rd tier of the deck which will include the spa. It’s been a couple years and the family loves their deck and spends so much time out there that they want to add more “rooms” if you will to their deck.
Austin elevated deck with pergola
You can see based on the furniture that the family really lives on their deck. The advancements in outdoor furniture and fabrics even allow comfy couches and plush pillows that can survive year-round outdoors.
Here is another picture of the unique gable pergola we built for above their main deck.
Austin gable pergola
Adding a gable to your pergola is a great way to enjoy the benefits of a pergola by add a little more design flair to it to complete an outdoor room area.
So, if you have the vision of your backyard dream in mind but want to talk to us about building it in phases, give us a ring.
Where is my contractor when I need them?
Have you ever hired a contractor and noticed various times during the project that there were little things you wanted fixed only to let your concerns ride because you don’t want to bother the contractor? Or perhaps you don’t call because you think your call will be unwanted. Or, maybe you don’t call because you think you’ll give your list to the contractor when you’re finished.
Austin flagstone patio
Wouldn’t it be nice if the contractor stopped by every couple of days while your project was in progress to make sure to take care of these questions or issues or concerns?
Tory Odom - Customer Service for Archadeck of Austin
We’ve always been proud of our service but we always strive to do anything we can to make our service even better. That’s why we hired a full-time customer service manager. Tory Odom joined our team to manage our customer projects and be the regular field customer service representative.
Tory is passionate about customer service. He has an excellent eye for detail and looks forward to working with you on your next outdoor project. Give us a call or send us an email for a free consultation for your next outdoor project. (512) 259 – 8282. Austin@archadeck.net
Don’t make your trees work around your new deck. Make your new deck work around your trees.
Archadeck built this deck to work with the mature trees in this yard
The railing of the deck above is beautiful and has a very interesting feature. The railing is specially tailored to work with the gorgeous tree in the yard. As you can see in the video above, the yard had several of these old trees and one hung over where the deck was going to be built.
One of the things Marc Mommsen noted to me when he was telling me this deck is what went in to modifying the railing to fit this cut out area. The metal pickets only came in the larger size. So they had to cut the rails, heat them and re-bend them for the new smaller size.
Metal railing modified and re-bent to fit new smaller size
This is the great thing about getting a custom project by a custom builder. You don’t have to make a stock product work for you. Make the builder work for you so that everything fits with your lifestyle, your yard, and your outdoor living needs and wants.
Tigerwood deck in Austin TX by Archadeck of Austin
As far as materials go, this deck incorporates the very popular tigerwood – a Brazilian hardwood with an exceptionally long lifespan. The tigerwood is also used for the rail caps and cedar is used for the posts. The tigerwood planks are a full inch thick and they are used in a 6-4 pattern. Six-inch wide planks alternate with 4-inch wide planks for nice aesthetic detail.
Because this deck is very wide, an inlay is used toward the middle for an attractive method of adjoining multiple planks made necessary by the extensive width of the deck. Here is another video of Marc discussing this technique.
Give us a call for design ideas for your outdoor space. The consultation is always free.
More importantly – Happy holidays from all of us here at Archadeck of Austin!
How many sides does a gazebo have?
This is an interesting question. How many sides does a gazebo have? Is it 6? Is it 8? The answer is that it can have any number of sides. It depends on how it’s designed.
When I first met Dan Schellenberg when I purchased Archadeck of Austin, I was impressed at what a genuinely nice guy he is. I also noted that he was very analytical and very detail oriented. He’s the type of guy to sit back and let others go first. So I asked him if he came from a large family and indeed he came from a family of 7. As we sat over pizza, he mentioned that his father could cut any pizza into 7 equal slices after raising a family with 5 kids that all loved pizza.
When Dan showed me this gazebo project he just finished, I studied the number of sides and became very perplexed. I stood under the gazebo and looked up at the ceiling and counted the number of panels or sides.
Austin Gazebo with 7 sides
Indeed – 7! Did Dan’s father build this gazebo? How in the world did Dan come up with a 7-sided gazebo design? It’s simple. He paid extremely close attention to his customers envisioning how they would want to live in their new custom outdoor space.
The homeowners were a lovely couple. They were a little older and had grown children and a sprinking of grandchildren. Their door leading to the backyard had a small deck/patio. The new extended gazebo-covered deck would adjoin directly to that area.
Gazebo long side
Although that old area was too small to be a useful space, it presented a real problem for building the gazebo. Dan knew the homeowners would not want a gazebo post right in the middle of their walkway from the backdoor to their gazebo. So, he added a side to the gazebo and made it a long side.
Looking at the gazebo from the yard, you might never noticed the 7-sided design of the structure. But creating this long side allowed the family to walk freely from their home to the gazebo without having to see or walk around a post every time.
Gazebo in Austin TX
Here’s Dan talking about this project.
Austin Decks, Pergolas, Covered Patios, Porches, more 