It looks just perfect ! what a big job, you must be so happy it's all over.

Whew!! thats finally over. I know how hard the chaos has been congrats.

So nice that it's all over and you can once again enjoy your outdoor space!! Everything looks so lovely and even though it was a PITA you will enjoy it so much more knowing the unseen workings are in order. Such a huge lesson for people who want to paint their walls when their roof is leaking or buy new living room furniture when their furnace hasn't been serviced in years - it may look good for a short time but you have to take care of the basics first.

What a lot of work, but everything really looks great!

Thanks! I wish we hadn't had to do the work at all, but it probably looks as good as it could with all these unseen pipes. We had no drainage problems whatsoever when we moved in eight years ago. There has been a lot of natural erosion in this area from the record rainfall this past year and a half, and the topography has changed. A lot. Two creeks--- one major and one minor--- converge on our property. Lets just say i know more about water management than I ever wanted to. ;-(

Just lovely, so warm and welcoming.

BTW, I take my tea with a splash of cream...biscuits on the side are nice too!
;)

Any time, Annie! Let me know when you are coming :-)

Gorgeous!!! Really elegant! :)

Ah yes! Tea would be lovely -- hot, lots of milk and sugar .... please pass the biscuits .... is there any jam left? Cheers!

Yes -- it is AMAZING how much our drainage here has changed over 20 years -- Thank the Stars Above that we put in French drains to take away the water from our driveway -- and channel it through the front yard and out into the sidewalk ...but we need to update the location of the opening by the driveway (we have alleys and driveways at the back of the houses)

That looks terrific! I love the pebbled look of your patio and the drains are well-done and unobtrusive, I think. Enjoy!

It looks great, and I can just imagine the mess. I love your outdoor theater.

When we get around to addressing our drainage issues, I know who to ask now.

That looks gorgeous, enjoy.

I get a craving for coffee just looking at your pics! Just lovely.

Your home and property looks very similar to my sister's home in NJ. Time to book a trip.

Happy draining!

Marti, I looked again at the picture of the movie, and that red blob on the left of the picture is actually an ipad. We bought a projector that has an ipad dock, so all we have to do is pull up a movie on netflix, amazon, etc., dock the ipad and it's on. We can play DVDs as well, and we those images make the most of the full screen--- apple format is wide only. The motorized screen can actually be stopped at any point when it is coming down to fit the format of the movie or whether we are in the spa or on the deck. It's easier to look at the lower third of the screen if you are in the seating end of the swim spa. We have really enjoyed this--- three seasons a year it is fantastic. I like movies outside in autumn, on the chaises snuggled under a throw.

So this was a much bigger issue than I thought! I was under the impression it was all do to an improperly sloped patio. No wonder it was such an extensive fix.

It was a combination of an improperly sloped patio, in addition to the main foundation drain that was blocked, and the new retaining wall for the pool not draining properly, AND significant changes in the topography of our acreage. When it rained the past several months we had water show up in VERY odd areas of the downstairs, like the wine cellar--- although you could not see where it came from. We've had several contractors try to fix these problems piecemeal, and finally decided to hire a commercial company to come in and do whatever necessary.

It's spectacular. Hope you have many years of enjoyment.

I so have to show this thread to DH. Of course, to show how lovely your patio area and backyard look!!! Also, to show the drainage "stuff"--someday we will address our needs in that area as well.

Beautiful job, Kswl. How nice that you guy still have so many lovely summer evenings left.

Thank you--- We're lucky that our autumn is so long and mild. When the weather gets cool I'll swap out the potted flowers for mums and crotons in fall colors and at Christmas it will be poinsettias :-)

Looks so beautiful! I missed the posts about the underlying issues, but it looks like paradise!

We have drainage issues as well--not fun! Glad you can move on and ENJOY!

I'm late to the party. Had followed your transformation when it was still GW. Looks great/ What is the setup for the iPad and movies? We're looking to do the same type of thing. TIA!

We have a projector with an ipod doc so we can stream any content---amazon, netflix, acorn, itunes etc. The screen was made by an awning company and rolls up to hide under a small awning of its own. It has rained so much this spring we havent had it out this year yet. Last week we brought out the palms (HUGE this year after a winter on growlights) , hung new baskets of flowers and replanted the window boxes. Its finally starting to look good again, just a few dead plants to replace with dwarf Indian Hawthornes.

I've been thinking I want to do something like that w/ the projector/screen too. Do you mind me asking what projector you used (brand/make?)? Also, where does the sound come from for the movie?

Edited to add- how visible is the projector when it is rolled up? Did the awning company offer that is a standard feature or how did you find someone to install it?

The projector screen is completely hidden by a short awning that projects 12" out from the brick wall and has about 9" of drop in the front. It matches the retractable awning over our bedroom deck, and the same company made both a few years apart. The screen was a custom job that I proposed and the awning company made. They had all the hardware and technology--- just had never been asked to out it together like that before. It looks nicer than other outdoor set ups I have seen. We couldn't use a flatscreen because that side of the house gets very, very hot in summer. We actually have to paint those decks and railings and stairs every single year because of the heat.

The projector is an Epson megaplex something; it was about $800 when we bought it three or four years ago---just before Apple switched the connection from a wide plug in for power cord to small, naturally, but we use an adapter now. I bought a Sony soundbox for Bluetooth connection sound, but we actually did not need it as the speakers in the projector itself are remarkably good. Now we use the Sony just as a portable outdoor speaker by the swim spa or I use it to listen to audio books from my phone while I am gardening, so it's still pretty handy.

Thanks kswl2! I will look into Epson megplexes. I wonder if I could find a local awning company to do that. Very creative to use an awning to hide the screen.

The yard looks gorgeous, KSWL, just in time for the party! Nice job with the drains.

How does the picture quality compare to indoors?

Very nice! I'm so thankful that the original homeowner of my property did extensive drainage work. It was one of the aspects that sold me on the house, although the current drought has made any drainage superfluous.

missed this the first time around; it's fabulous. and drainage is so important!

Looks great!

Wow, that's a lot of work KSWL, but boy it looks so nice. We need to do something like this under our deck as the basement patio was not pored properly and water pools in the inside corner of the house.
We're planning to build another garage and will have a drain like yours along it's front, so it was nice to see how one could look.

Btw--- this post was resurrected from 2013, I was surprised to see it!

Mtn, the picture quality is excellent. We tried a couple of vinyls for the screen, dull vs shiny, plain vs slightly textured, cream colored vs stark white, trying the projector image on a large sample of each. The only lights we keep on in that area are on the brick pillars of the gate on that side, they are carriage lights with just two chandelier bulbs each and don't interfere with the picture but provide enough light to get out of the spa safely.

Kswl, remarkable space! Could you tell me about your patio deck floor surface? I just had my pool resurfaced and the tile plus coping replaced. Most of my house opens to the pool area. I haven't had the patio / pool deck flooring done yet.

It is variable sized river rock aggregate. Most river rock patio surfaces are created by using one size pebble, the very smallest, giving it a more compact and uniform appearance. That application was very common on 70s and 80s pool decks. The larger and variable sized stones are more appealing to me. I had been trying to make up my mind for at least three years how we wanted to redo the hardscaping and couldn't find exactly what I wanted that would not compete with our brick. We visited an arboretum in Virginia with paths like this set amid brick structures and I loved it....so natural looking and rock without being Rock, if you know what I mean. We started to seal it but I really disliked the shiny, wet appearance so we ended up spending about $1000 to remove the sealant from half the patio. I mention that in case you get far enough that someone suggests you seal it....it is a bear to remove, the chemicals were so strong we had to vacate the house for awhile and kennel the dogs.

Thank you so much for the info KswI think I will look into this a little more. One problem possibly is the lip of the coping, it's slightly more than an inch. The look though would be very suitable for the age of my home only better. I'm am having a hard time choosing something that will not compete with the open interior and flooring. I thought I wanted ivory travertine but I'm not a 100 percent sure unless I could get the same size as inside which is 20 x 20 travertine "look" , haven't seen any that size...don't know. I like the natural look of yours and it would jive with some of the interior. I'm assuming you can get it in different blends? I would need it a tad lighter.

Yes, a good stoneyard can supply different color blends. The palest stones are white, light tan and gray.

I'm glad it was brought up as I'd not seen it originally. Now I can share this with hubby for our garage project.
I take it the drains are still working well?

It looks amazing!

The drains are working well, thank heavens!

Thanks everyone for the compliments, we use our backyard a lot and I'm very happy with the whole area. It looked awful when we bought the house!

Thank you KSWL.

I'm so glad this was resurrected. The outside of your home is as lovely as the inside!

So very nice! I'm glad to hear that you use your yard; I wish we could (too hot).

Thank you, I have a few more questions and hope I'm not being a pest. How does it feel on bare feet? How easy is it to clean? Would you say the sizes of your stones are in 1/2" to 1 1/2 " range? Is it held together with epoxy or----------?

Not at all, that's what we are here for :-)

On your feet--- fine! Many people tried to dissuade me from using this surface for that reason, but done properly it feels just fine on the feet. Because we have snakes and spiders I usually wear garden clogs when I am out there working though.

Stones are more in a range from a quarter inch to inch an a half. There is no epoxy, the process is this:. Concrete, at least two inches, is poured over your existing surface. Then pebbles are dumped in it and mixed with big spreaders (squeegee looking things) until they are pretty evenly distributed. Then they kind of disappear. Within eight hours (I may have that wrong, mind, my memory...) someone comes back with a pressure washer and "knocks down" the top crust of the drying concrete to expose the aggregate just under the surface. Then it just all dries in place. They come back and make construction cuts for expansion after it is all hardened.

I'll be honest---The draining concrete slurry off this project is a huge mess, it has to go somewhere and if it gets out in the yard and solidifies you'll have little chunks of porous concrete everywhere, so you have to further denature that liquid concrete by watering it down even more wherever the slurry ends up. A lot of it went down our existing drains and caused damage that then had to be repaired (see above). However, the contractor who did this job was a complete idiot (in addition to some things he did wrong and underestimated, he knocked down one of the brick pillars on our bridge because his truck / trailer combination was too long to make the turn off the bridge to continue on the drive and it was perfectly obvious that would happen to anyone observing the truck and turn radius with the most rudimentary knowledge of physics and geometry, not from books but just from being alive) and I would hope your contractor in Fla would be much better at this!

Oops cleaning---- since we have experienced a year of conditions that have made me seriously consider building in an ark, I will say that it can get mildew-y but is very easy to pressure wash (and with cleaner rather than too much pressure). We do this every spring. Are in the midst of our spring clean now, will make pix when finished.

I really appreciate the details of your project and messy problems. I just replaced a huge set of sliders in hurricane glass which cost a fortune "to me" and I'm about 2/3 done with my adjoining side garden where I repurposed the stone from upper fireplace and exterior chiminey. My back is shot...I will ask that certain areas be covered. I'm thinking this sort of patio deck will be a perfect solution for my situation of blending old with new . You drive your car on it as well? I have to do something with my driveway as well as widen it. This would be a perfect as it would not clash with the barrel look roof tile. Yours looks like the Tennessee blend. I think the Tennessee mixed with the White Egg would be exactly right for me. I think I remember you saying you had a house in Florida once so you know I will have my work cutout in trying to find a non-idiot installer.