How I Created a Pet Friendly Patio

Pets. You gotta love them. These rascals are two additional “kids” in our family. We love them and care for them and couldn’t imagine life without them.Our deck wasn’t always pet friendly. This was the deck when I bought the house.

It took a lot of hard work to make it people and dog friendly. I cleaned, sanded, stained and painted the deck.

I also placed the railing slats closer together since our larger dog, Teddy, fit right through them. He isn’t afraid to jump or run off. Clearly this didn’t work for us and we ended up not using the deck at all.This took countless hours of work, but it was well worth it.We also needed a gate, which I built and installed.

Now the dogs don’t fit through here any longer.

We have a park-like backyard with lots of mature trees and even a creek. Once in a while we have an entire deer family in our backyard. The dogs even have their own dog park.

Our deck may not be magazine worthy, but I feel blessed to even have a patio. The dogs, kids and myself love being out there. My son reads on the patio almost every day. My daughter enjoys having her morning coffee on the deck. Once the weather cools down a bit, I’m sure we’ll enjoy the patio even more.

I’m happy I was able to pull it all off before summer. It was a ton of work as was painting the house and refinishing the hardwood floors. In the end, it was all worth it!

I hope you are enjoying your summer, wherever you are.