Seating, or Eating?

Seating or Eating?

When starting a new patio, the question has to be addressed as to where to start - should we start with the eating area (ie the outdoor kitchen), or the seating area?

I guess it might depend on how late in the year it is, where the relevant sections are to be placed, and what you want to use it for. To address these questions in order:

1. It is already July; do I plan to use the patio this year, or am I willing to wait until next year? If I build the kitchen, where will we sit? If I build the seating area, where will we prepare the food? Obviously, the food can be prepared in the house, which suggests that the seating area would be better done before the eating area.

2. The eating area is at the opposite corner from the new steps; does it make better sense to do an adjacent section; or the section that is furthest away? In order that the measurements fit properly, it makes more sense to create the adjacent area first - and that is the seating area.

3. This is similar to the first question, in a way: will I want to eat or sit? Again, I can prepare food indoors, so sitting is the better option.

Seating area it is then J

Having addressed the question where to start, we set about it immediately. This is the area before we started:

Looking from the new steps towards the fence bordering the recreation ground. Fence? What fence?

Looking along the fence to the west

We attacked the elderberry bushes, nettles, and brambles with a vengeance. Some of the nettles were 7 or 8 feet high (OH is 6 feet):

Hard to see against the trees in the background, but it's higher than OH by a foot or two

We found some interesting bits and pieces in the undergrowth (why do they call it UNDERgrowth, when it grows OVER everything??) For a start, there was an old wheelbarrow - well, the frame and wheel. It is still stuck amongst the roots and brambles, so no photo yet I'm afraid. There was also an old post, rotten at the base and 8 feet high, that had marked an earlier boundary between this area and the next:

Still a long way to go, but the finished result so far:

J