Back yard

I need your help!

Our new back yard is soft... very, very soft. So soft that I am willing to bet that and table and chairs put there would be swallowed up in a matter of days. If we want to use the back yard, we need to do something.

My brilliant idea was to build a deck. Not just any deck, mind you. Oh no! My deck is portable! Yup. When we move, we can just flip it over, un-carriage bolt it and load it into the truck.

Our 12x12 deck will be built in four separate 6x6 sections that will be carriage bolted to each other, for the full 12x12 deck. Four 6x6 panels are a lot easier to move than a 12x12 panel, that's for sure.

We priced it out at the only two lumber yards in town, Home Depot and Lowe's. (Lowe's beat Home Depot by quite a bit, by the way.)

So our 12x12 deck will cost us $446.45, including tax. Not bad for a deck that will last for years if properly sealed. Which by the way... did you know that you are supposed to wait a year or so to seal pressure treated wood? I sure didn't.

We priced 12x12 pavers, and just for the pavers it is $215. So we can spend just over double that and have something that we can take with us.

I am still not done, though. I am going to call a few concrete companies and the city to find out what they do with their big chunks of old concrete. You can make something thatlooks very much like flagstone using pieces of old concrete. If I can get my hands on enough, I might use it for my beds, too.

As for the gazebo. There is a nice one at Wal-Mart for $200 that we might purchase. I really want to make one with an idea I saw years ago, but have no idea where to get what I need. Wait... let me find a picture.

OMG! Look what I found! A picture of the gazebo and a broken concrete walkway.

So we have to decide... money or time? We can spend the money to buy the gazebo and supplies for the wooden deck and be done with it in a weekend. Or, I can spend time looking for concrete and a satellite dish, digging up the yard and laying the patio and then building the gazebo. Probably a 3 weekend job, assuming that I find the concrete and satellite.

The deck is $460 and totally portable. The patio, is gas for picking the concrete up + between $50-$100 for the supplies needed - and not portable at all.

The Wal-Mart gazebo is $200 and goes with us. The satellite gazebo would have to be sold or given away if we moved long distance because I am not going to even try to stuff a 10 ft. satellite into a moving truck!

So, my question is... Considering that we rent and have budgeted for the Wal-Mart purchases, what would you do?

I have decided to just repaint my current wrought iron patio set. It is comfortable, and I like it. The only complaints that I have are 1) the table top is mesh, so to do school out there you need something to wrote on and 2) there are only four chairs. I can repaint it with a few cans of Rust-Oleum and buy a darn extra chair that kind of matches.