Sunday, June 8, 2008

Look! It's a Patio!

(There's been lots of house posts, so I apologize if you're bored by it...it's just what's been happening around here lately!)

My dad is a general contractor, which is extremely helpful when you have a house project to do! :) He came up this weekend to pour concrete and build us a patio cover. Originally, I wanted an open beamed trellis and have wisteria or grape vines growing up on it. But, he pointed out that while that looks pretty, we would have patio furniture totally exposed to the elements and vines of any kind only brings moisture to the wood, meaning it would rot out relatively quickly. So, unless we wanted to move all of the patio stuff out every winter (to where???), we might want a cover. I decided that a cover would be a good idea even if it wasn't quite the look I was going for.

We figured that if we were going to do a patio, we might as well make it a good sized one.

Concrete and pump trucks. I made an expensive math mistake when I calculated how much we needed. Concrete guy had to go out and get another load and we got charged a $100 short load fee. Oops.
Henry leaving his mark.

Helping grandpa wheel the tools back.
Beams for the patio going up the next day.
Helping again.We put down gravel and some stepping stones along the side of the patio so that the dogs wouldn't be walking through garden to get to the side yard which is their new "potty place"...no peeing on the new grass!
The finished product.I started painting, and then decided I wasn't in the right mood. How did I manage to give myself yet ANOTHER painting project??? I thought I was almost done! Sigh...

Goofing off with grandpa.

9 comments:

Kristen Borland said...

it all looks so quick and easy in pictures! (ha!)

looks great! i cannot believe how your backyard has changed!

Jacquelyn said...

Where in the WORLD is Andy? He's helping you right? Please tell me you aren't doing this all by yourself!!

Brianna Heldt said...

looks GREAT! what a sweet picture of henry and his grandpa. (and i love those throw pillows i see on the couch!)

Jeannett said...

Andy's been here. He's actually in one of the pictures. In fact, he's done way more work than I have! (But, he hates painting, so that's been largely left for me to do).

The pictures do make it all looks so easy! But there has been A TON of work...each step has been much more labor intensive than I had anticipated...and I thought I had anticipated it to be pretty bad as it was!

Tracy Regusci said...

Wow, the backyard looks awesome!! I still can't wait to come see the new place!! Love all the post about the house, it is fun to see the changes.

joy said...

wow--that looks great. you gibsons really move and don't waste any time. i still have your paint deck by the way.

Rachel Slagle said...

the patio looks great! you guys are hard workers :)

(and andy really needs some new clothes - he wore that shirt all the time his sophmore year in high school haha)

Aron said...

i cannot believe how much stuff you guys have done in such a short amount of time!! its looks GREAT! chris has been dying to put up a cover for us, maybe this summer i will finally let him :)

Diana Fabricio said...

Thats why andy needs to stick to doing the math for any kind of projects..... you stick to watching the baby!