A Perfect Patio (or, another place to enjoy a fire)

We own a 4wd vehicle that has, in our opinion, no need for a driveway (or garage for that matter, but that is another story). Taking this sentiment into consideration, we looked at the driveway possibilities and decided to relocate the concrete that would have been used for a longer driveway. By designing and staking out a large and much more useful patio area off of the screened in porch we were able to maximize our $$$ spent on concrete which is very expensive these days. We used wooden stakes and orange string to layout the general shape and size. After tripping over the string for about a month we decided that we should use some of the outdoor paint that is made for creating lines on the ground (mostly for sports, I think) and paint over the lines then remove the string and stakes. We added a special design element that facilitates one of our favorite things to do, a fire pit. Since we love to have camp fires, not only for warmth, but for beauty we decided that we would put one permanently in the patio. Prior to this time we had been using a steel washing machine tub for our "campfire" in the evenings, which is great for an occasional outdoor campfire by the way.


Patio Framing


Pouring the Concrete


What a mess!


Front "driveway", sidewalk, and landing.


Our first fire in the new pit.


Beautiful!


This says it all.


The mirrors for the bathrooms were put in within the last week or so and I just love the one in the master bath. It is above the entire bathtub and makes the bathroom seem so much bigger. Check it out.


Yes, that is me.

An inspector was at the house a couple of weeks ago and left a list of things that needed to be fixed or whatever according to the building code. One of the things he identified that needed to be done was a railing needed to be installed at the top of the landing. (Can you say duhhhhh?) Because of the way things work with the inspectors all of the things on the list had to be fixed prior to the electric power being turned on at (or even run to)the house. SOOOO, the banister railing was installed at the top landing. The guy installing the railing also did the stairs. No, we still have no power.


Upstairs railing, now OSHA compliant.




Finished stairs.


View of railing from top of stairs.


The wood floor has been installed upstairs and it looks great. The floor contractor was more than a little freaked out when he arrived to find that there were already cabinets installed. He also strongly discouraged us from putting wood flooring in the bathrooms where there were bath tubs or showers. In addition to all this, he said that he should have installed the floor months before so that the wood had time to acclimate to the temperatures in the house. So, we took all this new information and after mulling it over for about an hour we decided to go with tile in the two full bathrooms. This meant another trip to the tile store and more waiting while the tile was installed. Regardless, the floor upstairs has been installed and it looks great. There has been no sanding or poly coating as of yet and no downstairs flooring to date, but we are hopeful this will happen soon.


Oak stairs.


Both upstairs offices with wood flooring installed.


Scott's office floor.


My office floor (this room gets great afternoon natural light.)


View of landing from offices.