Patterson Park Patter: fruits of my labor

Rowhouse living is lovely for many reasons, not the lease of which is the absence of lawn to mow, water, weed, etc. It's especially lovely when one lives directly across from a big ol' park (which is very well maintained, I might add - Thank you, Parks & Rec!). It does, however, leave one craving a little private outdoor space. Awesome as I'd feel lounging on a park bench at 8 a.m. drinking my coffee in a bathrobe, I doubt it would do wonders for my business. And so we find ourselves turning to our patios as little urban oasis to call our own. This is hard, however, when your patio is (a) tiny and (b) nasty. Like, really tiny, and really really nasty.

Here is how it looked from inside, looking at the side wall (Note the big hatch door the basement that took about 24 square feet):

Now check out the gross color of the back of my house, crumbling cinderblocks, and dangling gate:

Here's what it looked like from the inside. You can just barely see the corner of a big A/C unit that was sitting right in the middle of it all. You can't, however, see the trash and used condoms that would be thrown over my wall. What a shame:

So something had to be done. What I WISH I could show you was me sledge-hammering the cinderblock. Alas, there was no photographer on hand that day. But that baby got torn down, and Premier Fence and Deck showed up and put up a pretty (expensive...) new 6' privacy fence with a nice gate that locks. And then I set to work planting and planting and planting, got some pretty chairs, and voila! Look now!

Planters on brackets hook over the fence's support beams, each planted with different flowers - here, begonias and some other tiny viney purple flowers I can't name:

I had my amazing handyman, Dario, build a deck over the hatch that I had never opened in four years to give me more usable space. He created a secret door so I have storage as well.