The back door opens and the family steps onto the patio. The coffee is out here in the morning. The homework happens out here in the afternoon when the weather allows. The dinner is served out here on the evenings that are warm enough, which in Williamsburg is most evenings from April through November. And the weekend gatherings, the cookouts, the birthday parties, the evenings by the fire pit, all happen on this surface.

The patio is the most used outdoor feature on the property. It is not the most exciting. It does not light up or produce flame or hold water. But every feature that does sits on the patio or adjacent to it. The outdoor kitchen needs the patio. The fire pit needs the patio. The furniture needs the patio. And the family needs all of them to be sitting on a surface that is level, stable, well drained, and built to handle the conditions Virginia delivers.