Fireside Retreat

A porch addition with a wood-burning ledgestone fireplace and a U-shaped kitchen, then a paver pool deck, built in stages.

This Summerville backyard came together in stages, one piece at a time, until the whole yard was done. Working that way only succeeds if the first stage is planned with the last one in mind.

The porch addition came first, with a tongue-and-groove ceiling under a standing seam metal roof. While the framing was open we ran the gas and water lines for everything that would come later, so no finished wall or slab ever had to be cut open to feed a fireplace or a sink.

Next came the fireplace. It burns wood, and it is faced in natural ledgestone with storage on both sides for the firewood. The mantle is sapele on iron brackets, and the hearth-height counter beside it is bluestone with a rough chipped edge, so the stone reads as stone rather than tile.

Then the U-shaped outdoor kitchen with a bar, in the same ledgestone under a black granite counter. It cooks seriously: a grill, a Big Green Egg, a sink and two fridges, one of them a drawer fridge. The bar island has a sapele foot rail that picks up the mantle, a range hood carries the smoke out from under the porch roof, and custom lights hang over the counter for cooking after dark.

Last, we laid the paver pool deck and finished the yard with irrigation and sod, so the green around the pool matched the finish of everything else.

“Excellent service and they pay attention to every detail to make sure it’s right. I have used them for several projects and recommend to all my friends and neighbors.”
Mitchelle Fitzgerald, Google review