Covered porches, pergolas and screened enclosures.

A deck in full sun is pleasant for a few months and unusable for the rest, which is how expensive outdoor space ends up being looked at through a window. Cover changes the arithmetic: shade makes afternoons workable, a roof makes a shower a non-event, and screen makes evenings possible without being eaten alive. Most people who build a deck here and do not cover it end up asking about cover within a couple of summers, which is worth knowing while the framing is still a drawing.

A pergola filters sun and defines the space while leaving it open — it will not keep rain off. A solid roof handles sun and rain both and darkens whatever is behind it, so the effect on the room inside is worth thinking about. A screened enclosure is the one that solves mosquitoes, and in this part of the state that is often the deciding factor rather than a nice extra. They can be combined, and the right answer starts from which month of the year you are trying to reclaim.

Anything with a roof puts real load on the structure and has to be tied to the house properly, flashed so water runs out rather than in, and supported on footings sized for the weight. Cover is not a deck with posts added — it is a building, and it draws more attention from inspectors than a deck does for good reason. It is also much cheaper to design in from the start than to retrofit onto a deck that was never framed to carry it.