I fancy a deck !

Tomorrow the patio doors go in. I can't wait. Obviously the wrong time of year but then my timing has never been great. I've cleared the patio of all moveable plants and will be taking down the curtain rails and stuff tonight.

One minor problem will be having to throw a rope ladder out the doors every time I want to get in and out. The original plan was to build some concrete steps, but tonight I have had a brainwave. (They come naturally to me when I'm sitting with a can of lager). I fancy a deck !
At the moment I've got a split level patio, with the higher side outside the office window, the lower side outside the soon to be magnificant patio doors. No excuses for not calling them "french windows". At the risk of alienating the europhiles amongst us, I don't want anything gaulish in my garden thanks very much.

Now the patio is sinking in the southern corner (where the chimnea is) due to a now demolished lleylandi. The surrounding low brick wall has cracked and although not dangerous, is unsightly. The slabs really need to be raised, levelled and replaced. So rather than do all that, the grand master plan is to have a deck running the whole width of the flat, high enough that I won't need any steps built, and will form a fairly large area that I just just open the doors and step out onto to sup my morning cuppa (or evening gin) and over look my veggie plot from a slightly higher elevation than just now. Queen of all she surveys if you like. There can be some cute decking steps both up onto the deck from where you're standing in the first picture, and down to the veggies where the pallet is in the second with a nice ballustrade all round the edge.

What do you think guys ?