Back Terrace
One section of our new home that is rarely mentioned is the small patch of concrete we call our backyard. With a dimension of 3 meters by 5 it isn’t useful for much other than a patio table and a few chairs. At the moment we picked up this little townhouse, the space was interconnected with a similar dimensioned space from the neighboring property which was currently vacant. Its tenant was in an assisted living center and to this day, I never met the woman who owned the place. Today being summer of 2019, it has since been sold twice both to young couples. The first arrived approximately a year after we bought our home. The father of the new owner was a worker by trade and came to remodel the property daily.
On the opposite side of our house further down the cul de sac was a family of 5. A single mother with 4 kids. Their property was a large yard extending behind our home. It was fenced off with a swinging panel they used as a gate to walk across both our property and the next property before accessing the road. This wasn’t the principal access, but they used it as such since they felt they could leave their door unlocked. Over time, their kids would leave bicycles outside the gate which happened to be our humble little terrace which made it dangerous for our daughter to play without injury.
In a short time after the new family moved in, they approached us proposing that we close off the spaces with a fence. The family of 5 being there the longest had given us the impression that the space was dedicated as a passage to their home and I had gone through extra efforts to not impede their rights. Upon analysis of our documentation encouraged by the new neighbors, we learned that the property was intended to be exclusive. We approached the mom of four children and asked her to show us something written where she had the right to pass on our property and she agreed that she would share her documents with us.
Some days later, came a knock on the door. Our community police officer was outside and explained that a complaint was filed by our neighbor that we were intending to block her access to the property. He explained that it was required he respond due to the complaint. I explained the situation and he said that it wasn’t something he could was intending to intervene in but we needed to talk to the community about it.
We had previously had a fairly close relationship with this family. We shared our internet with them, they used our spare freezer to store donations that came to them from their church and other sources. We even helped the older two kids with English and Math homework. We were a little surprised by her reaction going directly to the police to file a complaint.
They were accustomed to asking for help. They would even ask the father of the new neighbor for help with transportation and finding work for a friend. Turns out this relationship of theirs was used against us. Our new neighbor knew we shared our internet and time with her and as in good ol’ fashioned high school drama, planted a seed while speaking with that same family friend that we were bothered by the situation. It was probably a good year before she allowed even her kids to talk to us.
Getting back to the terrace project, at some point we asked her for her proof of access a second time. She said she’d give us the document but the same afternoon she “let her ex-husband look at it”,who was picking up the kids to go on vacation to France, I guess we won’t be looking at that anytime soon.
After seeing her dodge us a second time, we opted to fence off the property while leaving a gate just in case the community gave us trouble later on.
Adding the fence was actually part II of our terrace remodel. What was Part I? Let’s take a look.
When we moved in the terrace was nothing more than a sidewalk with a broken flower garden on the outer perimeter. Spanning the flower garden was a clothing drying line with the wires dangling to the ground. The flower garden walls were broken with dirt and covered with weeds cascading to the middle of the sidewalk. The walk itself had two sections. In the center next to the flower garden, was a sloped cement extending to the street. Against the house were 2 rows of concrete tiles built level with the property.
The Plan
As it stood, there wasn’t enough level surface area for even a single table. To remedy that I decided to Match the level surface for about 4 meters of the length and the last meter would slope towards the neighbors property allowing for water flow and access to wheelchairs in the future. At this point I assumed the property was not exclusive and that I was obligated to leave the passage open or perhaps I may have changed the project plan.
The flower garden would be rebuilt but with a slight adjustment splitting it into two sections allowing future access to the sewer manhole that had been buried by the previous flower garden. It would also be an optimal location to place a barbeque grill as our terrace centerpiece in the future.
Materials and Labor
Apart from brick and mortar to construct the flower bed, all we needed were some floor tiles and decorative tiles for the flower bed. To add some aesthetics, we added a white stone that would act as a protection against rain as well.
I did the work myself which saved on labor costs. While working on the project I made a mistake with the spacing of the tile, but nothing we couldn’t live with. I would have preferred to leave more space between the tiles for aesthetics, but I imagine I saved money on grout in the process.
Cost Breakdown
Cement: € 30
Brick: € 5
Floor Tile: € 50
Wall Tile: € 22
Grout: € 8
Capstones: € 50
Gate: € 150
Final thoughts
The project itself wasn’t that large, but the backstory made it one of our more noteworthy remodels so far. As it stands now, I’ve planted 4 grape plants and intend to build a trellis spanning over the terrace to create a private space in the summer months with grapes easily accessible. Dreams are dreams after all!
