I’ve wanted to finish this patio for so, so long. It’s finally mostly done, and I love it. This is how the space looked before:

Nothing special, just a weedy batch of ground between the porch and the rest of the yard. This is how it looks now:

It’s a fun place. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time or money on it, but I still wanted it better than a weed patch. We used road base as the base material, since it is pretty inexpensive, and if we ever want to change it to something like flagstone, you should have road base under the flagstone anyway.

The lights and curtains were non-negotiable. The curtains are awesome for shade and privacy.  And I love the lights at night (but not the mosquitoes. We rigged a structure with conduit and t-posts: it’s not the best, but was pretty simple and inexpensive to set up. Total cost was around $400.

Other pictures from the yard:

The sunflowers won’t be in this same spot next year. I love my pond and think it’s quite lovely and blocked it off with sunflowers. They will go somewhere else.