Backyard Time Found
When you’re extremely busy with work, and family, like this issue’s featured project homeowners, the last thing you want to do is waste your valuable time.
This is why it is crucial to find the right company to handle your outdoor construction project. Choosing the wrong company could turn your project from the backyard retreat you dreamed of into a construction horror story. Homeowners Maritza M. and Jeff K. were drawn to Gasper by articles in our seasonal circulars, just like this one. However, they knew that finding a great construction partner would take more than just pretty pictures. After doing their due diligence, they interviewed multiple landscape contractors and got different design options before deciding to move forward with Gasper Landscape Design and Construction to enlarge and upgrade their existing concrete patio. “With Gasper, it was really easy to bring it all together…the hardscaping, the plants, and the furniture.” remembered Maritza M., “I wanted somebody to do everything, soup to nuts. I wanted it done right. I wanted longevity and somebody who used quality materials.”
Maritza and Jeff’s yard was very steep, so in order to create a larger patio and a flatter yard, they decided to terrace the yard using two decorative block retaining walls from Unilock Concord. These walls varied in height from 18 to 30 inches. (According to the Oxford Language Dictionary, to terrace means to make or form sloping land into a number of level flat areas resembling a series of steps.) The patio itself is made of wet-laid Pennsylvania bluestone, which matches the front walkway. The new patio was spacious enough to accommodate a teak extension table from Kingsley Bate that can be extended to seat 8-12 diners, as well as a casual seating area with a gas fire table. A new gate and walkway from the driveway area and a series of steps that lead down to the lawn area make the whole yard more accessible and usable.
Like many of our clients, this project was completed in two phases: the patio and retaining walls and then the addition of a masonry cook station. Maritza is not a granite person, so she chose a smooth gray concrete countertop for the cook station, which was custom-built by a local company, Liquid Stone Concrete Design, LLC. The concrete counter gives the project a clean, more contemporary feeling and is just as durable and easy to clean as granite.