The Journey from Empty Backyard to Personal Retreat
Most homeowners dream about having a beautiful backyard, but many aren’t sure where to begin. What transformed our empty yard into our favorite place to relax, entertain, garden, and cook wasn’t a bigger budget — it was learning to create intentional outdoor living “zones” that matched how we actually wanted to live.
How did we get to the outdoor living space zones we now enjoy in our backyard? Let’s begin with a little history on our personal outdoor living space development.
So, we moved to Roanoke, Virginia in 2019, bought our house that December and moved in February, 2020 after a couple of months on some rehab. And just six weeks later the whole world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What was this COVID-19 thing? And how long would it last? No one knew. But frankly at the time we thought normalcy would return by summer. The longer we were sequestered away from COVID-19 contagions, the more we thought to build something in our backyard that we could easily enjoy outside. And here is the palette we had to work with — a completely empty backyard. Not a tree on the property. No garden. Just open space and a lot of grass to mow. In fact, it is the largest backyard we’ve ever had at any home we’ve ever owned.
Where to Begin?
We weren’t thinking about plans, designs or zones when we first started “developing” our backyard. The first element we added was a concrete bird bath that Julie rescued from a neighbor who had placed it at the curb on trash day. It weighed a ton and it leaked so we had to repair it. But when all fixed up we placed it in a spot where we could watch the birds drink and bathe from our kitchen window, and it became morning entertainment for us while we waited for our coffee. It was that recycled bird bath that became the inspiration to formally develop our outdoor living space.
Looking back, we wish we’d had the questions found in our Guide to Creating an Ideal Outdoor Living Space before we started. Today those worksheets help homeowners identify priorities, establish a realistic budget, and avoid many of the mistakes we learned firsthand.
Our Initial Outdoor Living Space Development
Julie and I sat down and talked about how we wanted to use our outdoor living space and determined a budget based on a percentage of the current value of our house at the time. Those early conversations eventually became the foundation of the planning worksheets included in both our Starter Kit and our Guide to Creating an Ideal Outdoor Living Space.
Given that we had suffered through the Great Recession of 2008 (and, for several years, owed more than the house we owned then was worth), we didn’t want to over-improve our backyard. We made a list of desired improvements and prioritized them in order of importance. After researching products and vendors, our budget allowed us to develop the top three items we had on our list:
- Privacy Fence
- Hard Surface Patio
- Garden Shed
And so it began.
Initial Development Challenges
Now remember, this timeframe was deep in the pandemic era. Costs went up, materials were hard to get, and patience was a must to retain a mild spirit.
We ordered the vinyl privacy fence in April but the material didn’t arrive until October due to the home improvement demand during the pandemic and a spring ice storm in Texas where most of the resin is made.
Similarly, demand delayed our concrete patio until August. In the meantime we bought the vinyl garden shed and put it together ourselves. By the Fall, all three elements were completed and we enjoyed a lovely Autumn on the patio in our outdoor living space.
Outdoor Living Spaces Are Works in Progress
Ultimately we installed a pergola on the patio with a fabric sun shade on top and started collecting furniture. You can read all about furniture options in Patio Furniture: The Eclectic Approach and Patio Furniture: The “Buy New” Approach
I built a “grilling table” and placed it next to the patio.
Sadly, my grilling events were so often rained out that the next major element we built was a “grilling deck” with a corrugated metal roof so nasty weather would not interrupt our outdoor cooking adventures. Read about this project in our blog post: A Grilling Deck For All Seasons.
We created an eating area on the patio and on the days when the weather was wonderful we ate lunch and dinner outdoors.
So, for the time being we were pretty content. And we wondered how many other people wanted fun improvements to their backyard but didn’t know how to approach such a project or how to create a budget to learn what they might be able to afford. So we started blogging about our experience so others could learn from what we did well and what didn’t work — we wanted them to avoid repeating our mistakes. Hence, our blog livingonthepatio.com was born.
Our Outdoor Living Space Metamorphosis Continued
But stuff happens, right?
In the summer of 2024 a violent wind storm blew off the roof shade on our pergola, ripping it beyond repair. I considered a metal roof as a replacement but for a little more money we could remove the wood pergola and replace it with a metal gazebo that was more of an all-season option. So in the Spring of 2025 we purchased and installed our patio gazebo.
One lesson we learned is that great outdoor living spaces evolve over time. That’s exactly why our planning tools help homeowners think beyond today’s project and create a long-term vision.
But I’m Getting Ahead of Myself
While we were researching the gazebo, Julie and I stared talking, in greater detail, about how we wanted to use our outdoor living space. Frankly, being sequestered at home for 2 1/2 years during the pandemic, we had grown accustomed to not traveling for fun but just walking out to our backyard and start immediately playing or relaxing.
Here are the benefits of not traveling to have fun:
- No cost of gasoline and wear and tear on our car or buying other forms of transportation.
- No lodging costs (in hotels that didn’t appreciate our level of “clean”).
- No restaurant costs (we have dietary issues that frequently cannot be accommodated at restaurants).
- No costs for attractions that didn’t meet our expectations leading to disappointment.
Here are the benefits of developing a play space in your own backyard:
- We don’t have any transportation costs except the short walk to our backyard.
- We sleep in our own bed that we know is clean and comfortable in a space we’ve already paid for.
- We cook our own food at a fraction of the cost of eating out and paying attention to any food issues that we need to avoid.
- And we started asking ourselves detailed questions about how we wanted to enjoy our outdoor living space: How did we want to “play” in that space? Did we want to use the space in all four seasons? Did we want to use the space during day time only or nighttime as well?
And so on . . .
Creating an Outdoor Living Space
A Guide to Creating an Ideal Outdoor Living Space
As we kept asking ourselves better questions, we realized other homeowners probably struggled with the same decisions. Those conversations eventually became the framework for our detailed 17-page Guide to Creating an Ideal Outdoor Living Space. This workbook will generate conversations within families to determine how to best use their space, what are needs and wants, how to prepare a reasonable budget (within their means), what can they do themselves and what will they hire out. Oh, and for you hardcore DIYers with many more skills than I have, we offer a similar tool: LivingOnThePatio Starter Kit.
Instead of telling people what to build, these resources help families discover what kind of outdoor space fits their own lifestyle, priorities, and budget.
The biggest lesson we learned wasn’t about patios, gazebos, or gardens. It was this: don’t design your backyard around products — design it around experiences. Once we started thinking about how we wanted to spend our time outdoors, the right “zones” practically designed themselves.
Outdoor Living Space Zones
Working through these planning questions naturally led us to organize our backyard into activity-based “zones.” Instead of designing around furniture or landscaping, we designed around how we wanted to live. By definition a zone is “one of the sections of an area or territory created for a particular purpose or activity”. Our entire backyard is the “territory”. We’ve created zones for specific activities that we like and might have traveled to experience, but now enjoy at home in our personal playground.
Zone for Grilling
As stated earlier, we built our grilling deck because we like to cook outdoors — all seasons in any weather. Check out this video making the point for a covered grilling deck:
Zone for Conversation
The Gazebo we added is large enough to be considered our conversation zone. We refer to it as our “We Gazebo” as everyone is invited to join us for a sit down in the We Gazebo.
Zone for Dining
We love eating outdoors so a regular dining area with shade was a necessity. We like having it “ready to eat” at a moment’s notice, day or night. The mobile tool chest to the right in the photo (it’s a Husky from Home Depot) is where we store our outdoor dining implements — dishes, eating utensils, drinking containers (aluminum glasses), cloth napkins, and tablecloths. We have a cover the Husky so it stays outside all-weather and is always dry and ready to use.
Zone for Cocktails
The next zone is an outdoor bar. After all, eating and drinking are important outdoor activities. So an area for cocktails and conversation was necessary in our outdoor living space. Julie found this bar and stools at an estate sale and picked it up for a reasonable price. I painted it black and strategically positioned two patio umbrellas to shade the bar at the correct time in the afternoon that we like to head out for some adult beverages and review our day. We refer to this zone as Randy’s R-Bar. Our logo is reminiscent of a western ranch brand. Giddy up!
Zone for Veggie Gardening
We love to grow our own veggies — it’s fun to watch them grow and tasty to eat fresh out of our garden. We have a zone for raised beds and another zone for a vertical garden.
Since our backyard is sloped, the raised beds sit on terraced wood frames filled with stones for good drainage. The raised beds accomplish two goals: 1) we don’t have to bend over to weed the garden, and 2) the rabbits can’t reach whatever we’ve planted. The beds themselves are horse troughs. We bought ours at our local big box hardware store.
I took the wood from the pergola we took down and built a structure for other veggies that like to climb such as cucumbers and string beans. I wrapped the structure in garden fence. The string lights that previously lit up the wood pergola we reused here for some outdoor garden ambiance.
Zone for Our Hammock
One of the great benefits of developing an outdoor living space is the opportunity to have spaces to sit (or lay down) and enjoy nature. So we decided to place our hammock in the center of the veggie garden so we can be surrounded by living green as we gaze at the blue sky or the stars at night. Again, we placed a patio umbrella in just the right spot to shade the hammock from the sun in the late afternoon when a short snooze is in order.
Hardscapes
Before I go on to the next two zones, let’s talk about hardscapes. Our initial patio is a 12 foot wide by 36 feet long pad. We chose concrete for its durability, longevity, and minimal maintenance. Because of these attributes concrete was very cost effective. So when we were building our additional zones we decided to again use concrete versus something cheaper such as a wood or gravel surface that would require more ongoing maintenance. These two pads are 10 feet square and leveled to be flat on our sloping yard.
Zone for Fire Pit
Having a ready-to-go fire pit zone is important to us because we love the social element that this zone creates. We use our fire pit zone in all seasons and it gets us outdoors after dark. It is the perfect environment to encourage fun conversation and lots of laughter, eat snacks, drink adult beverages and just chill out.
Zone for Julie
Julie wanted a “She-shed”. We had originally thought that a glamping tent would work for her purposes. But I suggested a “She-gazebo” because we don’t have access to electricity in the location she wanted her personal space. Hence, we couldn’t heat, or specifically, cool a she-shed in the hot summer months when she would use her space the most. She agreed and we bought the same gazebo as the “We-gazebo” but just a little smaller. By the way, while the “We-gazebo is open to all visitors, the “She-gazebo” is by invitation only. Ladies rule!
Zone for Private Conversations
We added a vine covered gazebo with a two-seat bench for those times when, during a social event in our outdoor living space, someone may want a private conversation or a photo-op. They can head over to the “V-gazebo”.
Garden Shed with Day Lilies
Our tour of the zones we’ve created ends with our garden shed, now beautifully surrounded by day lilies. These add tremendous ambiance to an otherwise drab, functional shed.
Night Time on the Patio
We spend a great deal of time in our outdoor living space after dark. We have a number of solar light options in this space to create just enough light to make it cozy. And we love to fire up our oil lamps and watch the flames flicker in the evening breeze.
Our Outdoor Living Space Zones Panorama
Watch the video here to see all the our zones in one pass of the camera and how we’ve positioned them in the order of how we like to use these zones.
Outdoor Living Space Zones Panorama
What Will Be Your Outdoor Living Space Zones?
We hope this post will give you ideas for how you can develop your outdoor living space so that it offers you the activities you like to enjoy on a regular basis. Please realize that developing your space is doable. Be creative. Think zones. Have fun. But do it.
If you’re just getting started, don’t worry about copying our backyard. Instead, begin by identifying the activities that matter most to your family. That’s exactly what our planning worksheets were designed to help you do.
Ready to Design an Outdoor Space You’ll Actually Use?
Start with our Guide to Creating an Ideal Outdoor Living Space, featuring 17 pages of planning worksheets that help you identify your priorities, establish a realistic budget, and create outdoor spaces around your lifestyle — not someone else’s.
Looking for an even quicker planning system? Explore the LivingOnThePatio Starter Kit, which expands on the Guide with additional tools, worksheets, and resources to help turn your vision into reality.
Let us know how we may help. And remember, every day is Friday on the patio!
Please Leave a Comment
Was this information helpful? Leave a comment below and tell us if this information was of value to you or tell us what we missed and can add to this post. Are planning on developing your outdoor living space? Or have you already created your fun zones? Add a picture so we can see your cool outdoor space! And tell us your locale. We’re in Roanoke, Virginia, USA. Where are you?
Buy us a Coffee
If you love this blog post on livingonthepatio.com, click the button below to make a donation and buy us a coffee. Thanks.
We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post at no extra cost to you if the affiliate links are utilized to make a purchase. Click this link to see all our disclosures.
