Paver Patio and Lake Access Staircase in White Bear Lake

This White Bear Lake property had two distinct needs - a comfortable backyard hangout space and a clean, safe way to get down to the water. Those are pretty common asks for lake properties, but they usually get treated as separate projects. We handled both at once.

Out back, we built a paver patio centered around the homeowner's existing fire ring stone. They already had the boulders they wanted to use, so we worked around what they had and built the patio to complement it. The result is a solid, level surface that gives the fire ring a real foundation and plenty of room to pull up chairs.

The lake access side was a different kind of challenge. The slope down to the water needed something stable and natural-looking - not a staircase that felt out of place on a lakefront lot. We used large granite stepping stones set into the grade with boulders flanking the sides to keep everything secure and tie it into the landscape.

A little sod repair and planting will finish the edges once things settle, but the hardscape itself is done. Both areas are functional and ready to use. That's really what a project like this comes down to - getting the yard to actually work for the people living there.

Lake properties have a lot going on. There's the yard, the shoreline, the space in between. When we can come in and address all of it in one scope of work, it saves the homeowner time and keeps everything looking like it belongs together. That's what we aimed for here.