This year will be a big Outdoor year for us.  Many of the things we have been putting off in the way of improving our yard and landscaping will be pushed to the top of the list, and hopefully we will make some big progress.

Starting with the curved walkway that was poorly settled bricks made into steps, and adding some privacy from the front door to the rest of the windows and doors to the house.

I started by pulling up the existing brick "steps".

   

       

 

And just in case you are wondering, even with snow on the hill sides, it is still a good idea to wear sun gear at 9000ft.  (Of course, I still got sun burned three days later when working on some other outdoor projects.)

 

Here is how it is now…

 

Here is the raised bed and bushes I would like to put in to separate the “front door” from the rest of the patio area…

 

Here is the curved walkway I took the bricked “steps” out of…

 

And here is what I would like to do to make it a nice slope to pull a wagon or wheelbarrow, etc…

 

From the front….

 

To something like this….

 

 

 Okay… I played around with it a bit more so that I could better picture things in my head and have this to show…

 

Of course, I am leaning towards using scavenged granite rock to build the sidewalls of the planter and sidewalls of the ramp, but you can get an idea of what it might look like if I did pebble embedded concrete, or the composite decking, as both would lend to a similar color as shown here… which should also blend well with our rusty-tan granite land.

Also, if I am willing to have the start of the ramp be more narrow than I originally was wanting, then the stupid cement pad (look under the pile of bricks and to the bottom left of the picture) will be to the left of my ramp.  Not sure I like it being there, but maybe if I extended the ramp along-side it?    ( 3 ½ to 4 inches thick by the way…   WHAT were they THINKING with that?  )  The trouble is that the lower curve of the driveway starts cutting off the area for the ramp and flat space there gets smaller and smaller next to the cement paddy.

Humph.  Maybe I will go out there and sit a while and some magical gnome will go “Poof!” and I will know exactly what to do.