When Chris and Tina Bodine returned to their native Alabama from Rhode Island in 2010, they looked forward to four-season living at Lake Martin. They bought a house at The Ridge with front and back lake views and plenty of room for their extended family, but the outdoor living spaces lacked the livability and comfort for which they’d come south.

In 2011, they made some adjustments, removing the exterior walls from a screened porch and constructing a trellis over an adjacent flagstone patio. But they longed for better use of the grassy yard that sloped severely to the lake.