We've been talking a lot about our backyard and garden area lately, and we're quite happy with how it's coming together this year. It may not be the complete overhaul that we have planned several years down the road, but it's really come a long way since the early days in our home.

It's amazing to look at the old pictures from just after we moved in and compare them with more recent photos. The time and effort we've taken over the years becomes far more apparent. But if you've been looking closely at our photos, there's one major change we made but haven't ever told you about. Here's a hint: 

From the day we purchased our home, the back door to our garden was a complete eyesore. Rumor has it that a retired high ranking officer in a branch of the armed forces owned our home back in the early to mid 1980s, and he was responsible for several of the unfortunate changes that were made to our home. He seems to have had an odd sense of style and design, and he was afflicted with the styles most commonly associated with the 1980s -- a double whammy for our little home.

At some point in his enduring wisdom, this previous owner opted to construct an entryway to our back garden more reminiscent of a porta potty that one might find at the Greek Parthenon than in your typical Old Town residence.

Built from assorted cheap wood not meant for the outdoor use, and using an original interior door probably removed from our master bathroom (I'm still actually pissed about that one), this calamity was never going to stand the test of time and was already falling apart by the time we moved in.

It had been backed into by a car or truck on more than one occasion, was infested by termites since it was built touching the ground, it was always (and I mean always) wet, and it was constantly peeling and flaking paint that would ultimately be tracked into the house on the bottoms of our shoes.

Several years ago Wendy and I had enough with this big fat Greek monstrosity. While some work was being done next door and a contractor that we had gotten to know was hauling away garbage we said "Hey, if we rip this down, will you take it away for us?" He obliged and we got to work.

The thing was built so poorly that we had it down in about two hours using little more than a hammer and prybar. That left us with a rather large opening in need of a new door.

We decided that we didn't need to buy a new door or gate for the opening because I could probably build one. Sure, why not, I mean, I had never built a door before, but it didn't look that hard.

Knowing the moisture involved in this location and the fact that we wanted this door to look somewhat rustic and simple, I decided to use pressure treated 2x8 as the material for the door. The rounded edges of the wood would give the door nice vertical detail, and the thickness would provide a good and substantial feel for the door.

Note: This was the first time I ever attempted this type of thing, and I made plenty of mistakes along the way. If I were to do it over again there are quite a few changes I would make. But I'll get to those things throughout and at the end of the post.