Outdoor living
Kitchens, fire, and shade outside.
The rooms outside the house. An outdoor kitchen you cook in on a Wednesday, a fire feature that gets lit in October, a pergola that makes July usable. Built from stone, cedar and steel, $45,000 to $180,000.
What we build
A kitchen outside gets used when it is twelve steps from the fridge, not forty. Placement is most of the design.
- Outdoor kitchen
- $38,000 to $75,000. Stone counter, grill, sink, fridge, gas and power.
- Fire feature
- $9,000 to $22,000. Gas burner, concrete or steel bowl, seat wall.
- Pergola or shade
- $14,000 to $48,000. Cedar or steel, with lighting and a fan circuit.
- Seat walls and terraces
- $28 to $45 a square foot for the hardscape under all of it.
Materials
Three materials, chosen for twenty summers.
We build with what holds up in a valley that hits a hundred in August and gets forty inches of rain in a wet winter.
- Board formed concrete and limestone for counters, walls and coping. Limestone stays cool underfoot.
- Western red cedar for pergolas, left to silver or oiled once a year. Steel posts where the span is long.
- Blackened steel for fire bowls, planters and edging. It rusts to a stable finish and stops.
- Porcelain pavers over a drained base where the client wants a clean, uniform floor.
Permits
Most outdoor kitchens and every fire feature need a permit in Los Gatos, Saratoga and Monte Sereno. A pergola over 120 square feet or taller than twelve feet usually does too. We draw it, submit it and meet the inspector.
The gas line is run by a licensed plumber we have used since 2017, because that is what the town wants. Everything else, the masonry, the electrical, the carpentry, is our own crew. Setbacks from the property line and the house are checked on the site walk, before you fall in love with a spot that does not work.
Permit fees run $600 to $2,400 and are listed as their own line.