Every fall, Luke loads up his wife Carolyn and their four kids and makes the drive out to Grandad’s Apples in Hendersonville, about two and a half hours from Charlotte, tucked into the mountains near Asheville. It’s a haul, and every year they debate whether it’s worth carving out the whole day for it. Every year, the whole family agrees that it is.

There’s u-pick apples, a pumpkin patch just opening for the season, a corn maze, and kids running through piles of leaves just looking for the pefect spot to launch into. The family comes home with a trunk full of apples, a box of cider donuts that rarely survives the drive, and four kids who are, without fail, asleep before they hit the driveway.

But while going to the apple orchard is a special treat, it’s where the family ends up most Saturdays in the fall that is one of Luke’s favorite places.

Coming Home to the Screened Porch

Once everyone’s home, Luke’s routine is almost always the same: pour a glass of cider, and head straight for the screened porch. It’s the room he built specifically for this. No bugs, no need to bundle up, just the cool of a fall evening with the screens doing their job and the kids winding down without anyone needing to be inside.

“It’s not complicated,” Luke says. “I just wanted a place where we could actually sit outside in the fall without fighting mosquitoes or hauling blankets around. It’s simple, but it’s just what we love.”

It sounds simple because it is. But it’s also, not coincidentally, the exact thing a well-built screened porch is supposed to do, and the reason it’s one of the most requested builds we do heading into fall.

An Outdoor Kitchen Built for Charlotte Game Days

The other fixture of Luke’s fall calendar has less to do with apples and more to do with Alabama football. Saturdays that aren’t spent at the orchard usually end with friends and family gathered around the outdoor kitchen on his deck, something on the grill, the game on, and a level of noise that makes it very clear whose team just scored.

“I built the outdoor kitchen because I wanted people to actually be out there with me, not stuck inside while I’m out back flipping burgers alone,” he says. “Cooking’s better when there’s people around. That’s kind of the whole point of an outdoor kitchen.”

Why This Isn’t Just a Business to Luke

Ask Luke why he does what he does, and he doesn’t talk about square footage or composite decking specs, at least not first. He talks about the porch, the orchard trip, Saturdays with the kids underfoot and the grill going.

“Outdoor living isn’t a just a title we put on our website. It’s literally how my family spends time together. That’s the whole reason I do this. I want other families to have their version of that, whatever that looks like for them.”

It’s a simple thing to say and a harder thing to actually build toward, but it’s the standard behind every project we take on as one of the Charlotte deck builders who thinks about a backyard as more than square footage: not just a deck or a porch, but a space that becomes the place a family actually gathers, season after season.

Building Your Own Outdoor Living Space in Charlotte This Fall

If you’ve got your own version of Luke’s Saturday in mind, whether that’s a screened porch for quiet fall evenings, an outdoor kitchen built for game day, or a composite deck that just needs updating before the next round of gatherings, fall is a great time to start that conversation.

And if you’re building new, our September offer applies: book a new deck or screened porch project by September 30th and get a complimentary lighting package at no extra cost, because most of the best moments on a deck happen after the sun goes down anyway. Full terms are on our special offer page.

If you want to see what a fall day at Grandad’s Apples looks like for yourself, grandadsapples.com has the details, apples are usually available through the season, with pumpkins and the corn maze rounding out the visit.

We’d love to help you build your own version of Luke’s Saturday. Book a free estimate or call us at (980) 414-0320.