Patio Completed

3 Months in the making!

Here she is folks, our patio.

She’s gorgeous. 

But you still need to put on your imagination goggles, because the surrounding areas are still a wreck, and the patio furniture needs a makeover, and…as much as I’ve been telling myself I’m gonna amp up the blog’s look with great photos... I did not wait till the time was right to take the photos, so the light and shadows aren’t pretty. (But baby nap advantage -- so…at least you get to see it.)

That said, let’s check her out.

If you walk into our backyard through it’s side yard entrance, this is how she will great you.

I’ve been searching for inspiration images for months now, trying to figure out our furniture situation.

The depth of the sunken area (If you are just joining us, that area is actually the reason we made the patio -- it’s purpose is to act like a retaining pond when it rains hard, so that our family room will stop flooding. You can read more on that here.) So yes, the depth that area wound up being, is hard to style.

I set some normal kitchen chairs in it for scale, and they looked very, very awkward -- much too tall. So I learned I needed something squatty. Our broken plastic adirondack chairs actually seemed right in there. 

So I came to the conclusion that I could go for something easy like adirondack chairs, or something really elaborate and unique (and either costing a fortune, or needing to be DIYed) and I was pinning all those things. While I was keeping my eyes peeled for Craigslist or Restore treasures. (Because new wood adirondack chairs start at about $100 a piece, and after buying all these pavers….not gonna happen.)

Then last weekend I was shopping with a friend who is letting me play interior designer at her house.  (I’m so excited!) We found her an AMAZING mirror as like the showstopper piece for her living room.   (Can’t contain the thrill.) While shopping with her, I made sure to stop by ReStore’s area where they would set out the patio furniture if they had it, telling her how I had regret about passing up some really beat up adirondack chairs because they had only been $10 a piece. But there was nothing for me there that day.

We left the store, and by the time we got back she knew she had regret passing up a lamp, so she had to go back. When she got there they were right in the middle of setting out four adirondack chairs, in much better shape, still only $10 a piece! She called me... and the rest is history.

I’m SOOOOOOO excited to have these!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 They are so perfect. Their scale is so great. They are a bit on the small side of usual for these type of chairs -- which is wonderful for this application. I’m so excited. They just need to be repainted and tightened up a bit. Which I think is well worth the work saving us at the very least $360 by buying used. (But really $100 a new chair is a baseline price, and not counting sales tax, and possibly shipping fees.)

 I’m thinking a nice, subtle, sophisticated tan-putty color for them.

Anyway, let’s talk about the patio itself.

Blake did SO good.

So good.

Look at that herringbone!

This patio has been pretty much all he has done if he isn’t working or doing (day job) work at home -- for three months. This was no tiny task.

But as of two days ago, we finally crossed the “t”s and dotted the “i”s and the polymeric sand is in and hardened up. And a lot of (not quite all) the junk is cleaned up from the process.

Our free time is about to be spent NOT creating a patio! Woohoo! (I’m not sure I can say it will be spent lounging on it yet -- the list of projects…so long! But maybe sometime before it’s too cold we’ll spend a hoodie-d up evenining out there.)

If only we already had our fire pit -- that would be perfect.

But I’m still looking at inspiration pictures for that.

I’m leaning towards this concept 

via

to set over top the sump pump area. But making sure I can’t find anything even more ideal, before going that route. That will be another DIY thing.

In these next photos -- I moved the furniture around and attempted to style things out they way I think I’d like it -- but with stuff from the junk in our yard.

Next year I want to have pretty potted plants sitting in lovely spots. (Looking up stuff that keeps away mosquitos!)  So for now I have a couple almost dead attempts at herbs from our “mobile garden.”

And I set two dirty pots upside down to pretend they are side tables.

 So please use your imagination eyes with me: See the chairs looking tan, the plants looking good, and the tables being tables, add a fire pit, and see the yard having grass.

WHAT!?! SO GOOD! Right?

YES. Very good. If you can’t see it -- just trust. Next year we are going places!

I also can’t wait to get the kids some stuff to play on. to go over in the shady side of the yard. It’s going to be wonderful.

We also used our leftover pavers (and had to buy a handful more) to edge one side of our driveway with pavers. We’ve talked about this for about a year now --- it’s been quite tight getting out of the van and not walking on the plants, so we wanted to give some extra walking space for that, as well as give our feet somewhere besides mud to walk when going to the mail box.

I had to transplant a bit of our peony plant out of the way. (I’m hoping those will flourish in their new spots in the bed.) And Blake did all the back breaking labor.

I love it -- it turned out really great.

‘

We need to get rid of the cinderblocks and then we will have a normal driveway again after 3 months of not really being able to use it while it housed all the pavers!

 In the middle of all those plants is a rose bush that came from my grandpa’s house. I have so many memories of him cutting off a rose to send home with me, and of a single rose always just floating in a clear glass bowl at my grandma’s table. My uncle was so sweet and he dug it up for me before my grandpa’s house sold.  I’ve been watering it diligently hoping it would weather the transplant, and it’s starting to grow LOTS of new leaves, so I think we might be out of the woods, I think it’s going to live! I’m so happy to think I'll  see it bloom here.


Here are the pavers by our mailbox. Someday we’d like to get a different mailbox-- neither of us like it for different reasons. I think it’s not pretty. Blake hates that tons bugs live inside it’s hollow insides. It’s also leaning without any small effort fixablity. But the pavers look fantastic!

So ends our patio progress saga.

Onto the next thing…whatever that winds up being…there are lots of directions we are being pulled.