Planting Pops of Color.

The same day I planted my succulents, some outdoor planting got accomplished too.  The outdoor stuff is what actually kicked my butt into gear to get the succulents done.

On a recent trip to IKEA, I couldn't resist helping myself to a few planters.  Two of them, you saw here...they live on our front porch.

The third one I purchased is a white, three-tiered plant stand.  I totally fell for the uniqueness of it.  I adore the fact that it's not a typical planter you see every day. 

Hubby couldn't wait to add some life to it, so during a nice weekend day, we headed to Home Depot's Outdoor Center...along with the rest of the world. ;)

We picked out beautiful dahlias for the front porch planters and some colorful begonias for the IKEA planter.

We even purchased two hanging planters of pansies, but removed the hanging apparatus, and put them at the bottom of our patio steps.  They are a great pop of color in our backyard.

Since I love all things ombre, I decided to organize my begonias in an ombre type fashion...going from orange to pink.

Now this fun planter lives in our back porch, and gives us a pretty view, both out the kitchen window and from the back patio.

 

PS-The dahlias on our front porch have now fully bloomed.  When we went to the garden center, we chose the plants that had the least amount of open blooms on them.  We were hoping that if we bought plants that hadn't yet blossomed, we would be able to enjoy more of it's time in bloom.  It seems to have worked, and they are thriving.  Heck, the ones we bought for the back yard have even been thriving!  High five for us not killing our new plants after a few weeks! ;)

Finishing Touches...For Now.

While still basking in our post-patio installation glow, the hubby and I realized there were a couple things that needed to be accomplished ASAP to give the area a more completed look.

The first thing was small, but annoying.  We had cable wires, splitters and telephone lines that were stapled to our siding, starting from the front of the garage and going all the way around the house to the fireplace.  It was never a cute look, but it also wasn’t super obvious because, well, the rest of our backyard was in such disarray that you didn’t have time to notice it. ;)  That all changed when our awesome patio was finished.  When you looked at the area, you couldn't help but notice the now-staring-you-in-the-face-eyesore…and so it was ripped down ASAP. 

The hubby and my dad took care of removing the wires and staples, and with a little touch up paint, it was like they were never there.  {We never used the old cable and telephone lines.  Instead of traditional cable and phone service, we had Verizon come and install Fios, so we knew it was a-okay to tear down the old lines.}

The second thing was a much bigger deal than just a few wires, although it was crossed off the list on the same day…building a new, NON-rotting, set of steps to access the backyard from our screened-in porch.  Our patio guy scheduled some of his workers, who are also carpenters, to come by and put together something much more safe and substantial.  The project took quite a few hours and it was well worth it when we saw the finished product.  {The stairs have been sanded and stained since these pics…update coming soon!}

And finally, the last thing that really transformed the area into a done-deal was when hubby and his dad spent an entire day putting lattice up on the bottom of our porch.  It was a heck of a project, but the results are 100% worth it.  Hubby even took it a step further by painting the wood strips used to secure the lattice and he continued our mulch and flagstone path that wraps around the fireplace side of our house.  I used to despise that area, and now it’s one of my favorites!!

Of course, just because we crossed all of the above off our list doesn’t mean these spaces are anywhere near complete.  We still need to grow grass in the backyard…and the hubs is working diligently at it.  He’s done a great job, going in small sections.  Raking…seeding…raking…watering…watering…watering…watering.  So far, we’ve been pretty successful!  Grass is popping up in the two areas he started on.  He just did area #3 yesterday, and we are keeping our fingers crossed it takes like the first two did.

Both the screened-in porch and patio need to be “decorated” too.  This is definitely not in the budget this year, and quite honestly, it might not be in the budget for a few years.  Outdoor furniture is crazy expensive, and so we are using what we’ve got!  My parents found an amazing end-of-season deal on some chairs from Lowe’s last year, and purchased 6 for us {the green and white ones in the pictures}.  Then they found 3 great little side tables from Walmart this year {little oil-rubbed bronze ones in the porch}.  I found a sweet deal on two zero gravity lounge chairs {from The Foundary} and purchased those to lay in the sun {the dark chairs in the porch}.  And best of all, I got a dining table and 5 chairs from my boss, for FREE, because his family was putting their old set to the curb.  Oh, and the previous owners happened to leave an old lounge chair at the house when they moved out. {Both of those things are sitting on our patio in the pictures.}

Does any of this furniture match?  No.  Is every piece what we’d “want”?  Not necessarily.  But is it all functional and does it give us the ability to enjoy the awesome space we have?  Yes!!  And that is what matters.  We are so blessed to even have what we have...and that includes our new outdoor space that has become a favorite hangout space for us.

Don’t get me wrong…knowing our budget is nonexistent doesn’t stop me from daydreaming about the furniture I’d like one day, or how I might spray paint some pieces to match, or what type of stripe or stencil would look perfect on the porch floor, or how we mightttt be able to stretch our budget to purchase the lights we want to hang from our porch ceiling.  It’s so much fun to dream and get the creative mind going, but it never distracts me from recognizing just how lucky we are to have what we have, and who we have, and to be right where we are. :)

Fast-forward...

Like I mentioned in my last post, I'm a little behind on revealing the progress of our patio.  It's just what happens when we have a visit from my beloved parents.  We end up getting involved in a million and one projects, and then I get overwhelmed with how much I need to share with you all.  Of course that causes me to run and hide my head under some pillows until I get the courage to face my blogging dashboard again.

But I'm back now...and before I even get started with the little projects we just tackled, I'm going to share our UHHHHH-MAZING new patio!!  The slab went through quite a few stages since you saw it here, here, here and here.

Yesterday you saw the wet concrete.

Then we had a stained, almost-cured pad...complete with hand drawn stones.  {Yup, those things are manually drawn by our concrete guy.}

Then later that night, he came back to cut the joints into the concrete.

Oh, and while all of this was going on, they uncovered the fact that our gutter was draining into this...a root-busted and completely packed PVC pipe.

But that was no worry because our phenomenal patio guy had his crew create a dry well for us.  I mean really, do contractors get any better than this?!?!

Sorry...back to the patio.

After the joints were cut, it was time to make a second step {we weren't happy with how just one looked, so they agreed to create another one}, and they also started to paint the crevices between the stones.

Then it was time to blow the patio off to prep the surface to be sealed.

And after the sealing process, we were blessed with this beautiful outdoor space!!!!

COULDN'T.BE.HAPPIER.  So what do you guys think?  Quite a bit better than what we started with right??

{Btw, if anyone in the NJ area needs the best concrete guy around, contact Alex at http://www.stampedconcretenj.com/.  He is THE BEST!}

Who Needs An Alarm Clock?!

****This post was TOTALLY supposed to go up last Wednesday, but I was slightly distracted by the arrival of my parents.  Whenever they show up from NC, everything...including posting things I already prepped...goes on the backburner.  My bad!  Let's just pretend I posted this on time...k, thankssss!****


I know I didn’t this morning!  Instead, I was stirred out of sleep by the wonderful hum of a concrete truck!  {Okay, so our first alarm went off at 5am for the gym, but clearly, neither me nor hubby, were in workout mode today.  Whooops!}

Regardless, when I got my lazy butt out of bed today, I opened the blinds to see a bunch of workers prepping our patio area for the onslaught of concrete it was about to receive.  If you follow me on Instagram {retroranchreno}, you saw this picture nice and early!

By the time I was in and out of the shower…the concrete was already flowing!!

It took maybe 25 minutes of pouring and smoothing, and we were left with this.  {Can I get an AMEN for the fact that the truck could pour right into our space, versus the crew having to fill the area via wheelbarrow?}

The remainder of the day, our guy is going to manually create 3 – 5 foot “stones” in the concrete.  The larger sized stones will help make the patio appear less less busy and aid in hiding the joints he needs to create.  These joints are a must and will keep the pad from cracking over time.  After today, the crew is scheduled to come back Saturday morning.  I know the pad will need to be stained and sealed, and our steps and gutter drainage still need to be completed as well.  I can’t wait to see the finished product!

Taking Shape!

First you saw us destroying the old “patio” in our backyard here, then you saw us removing the debris here and finally you heard all about our new grill/gas line here...well, now it’s time for the real patio fun to begin! 

Originally, our concrete guy thought he would be able to start our job sometime this week.  He had one large job on his schedule in front of us, but after that, we were next in line!  {Thank gosh we signed the contract with him when we did, because he said he had a flurry of jobs come in right after ours, and the wait is now 6 - 8 weeks!!  Yikes!}

Anywho, after a couple days of rain we thought our job would start even later, but we were greeted with a very nice surprise on Wednesday morning.  While we were getting ready for work, our guy called to let us know he was on hold with the job before us.  They were having some drainage issues on that property, so he was wondering if it'd be okay to start our excavation process that day.  We were thrilled, and told them to come on over!

After briefly discussing the layout again, we left for work feeling so confident about the job he'd do.  {Seriously, I can't say enough about this guy!!}

Our work day couldn't go by fast enough because we couldn't wait to see all that was accomplished in our yard.  I truly was expecting to see dirt moved from point A to point B...and that's about it.  But no, no, no!  Our stairs were removed {they are building new steps to the porch...our current ones are were a serious safety hazard}, the dirt was excavated and moved to low points around our home that we discussed earlier {didn't I say this guy was awesome??}, crushed stone was compacted/tamped into a level surface and wood forms were in place!

So last you guys saw, our patio area was looking like this...

And now looks like this!!

Hopefully all this progress means we aren't too far from the pouring phase of our project!  Woot woot!

Anyone else step up their home's outdoor game lately?

Just in Time for Father’s Day…

Is there a better time to post about a shiny, new grill than right before Father’s Day?!?!?  I think not.

If you remember, the grill that used to live in our backyard looked like this. 

Yea, nothing special.  The handles became charred and fell off.  The placement was taking up prime-time entertaining space.  Oh, and it’s so old/flimsy that I’m pretty sure I could have karate kicked it over.

Cue my hubby’s family wanting to get us a house warming gift.  For the longesttttttt time I could not figure out what to tell them we needed.  I mean, there is a ton we wanted, but nothing that we needed.  So through the cold{ish} winter months, I just kept saying “I’m not sure…I’ll get back to you”.  Then as the temperatures warmed up and we set our sights on the exterior, we realized a grill would be the perfect gift for us! 

And since I will most likely not use the grill, nor do I really know anything about grills…I left this purchase to the men of the family.  Hubby and his dad headed off to P.C. Richard about a week ago and purchased this puuuuurty new addition for our {not-yet-existing} patio!

{Is it wrong I just called a grill "pretty"?  I’m almost positive it goes against the man code of grilling.  Oh well!}

Anywhooo, here she is...our very own Weber! 

She {yes, she} will have a lovely new home, and gas line, thanks to some great plumbers I found on Angie’s List.  Since the old grill was smack in the middle of the patio space, and the old line was leaking…we knew we’d need some professional help to take care of business.  Unfortunately, when the plumbers arrived, they let us know that the line to the grill was illegal, and a new one would have to be re-run to the tune of way more than we thought we’d be spending.  I may or may not have started to cry when I heard this news.  It just wasn’t in our budget to re-run a whole new line, buttttt it’s better to be safe than sorry right?!?!?  I mean, who wants to mess around when it comes to a gas line?  Personally, I love my house and do not want to see it blown to smithereens.  {What?  Too dramatic?  My bad.}

After my initial shock and tears subsided, I was happy we did things right and ran a new line.  It’s now legal, above ground {running along the side of the porch} and comes out right where we need it, to the left of the porch stairs.

Can I just tell you how excited I’m going to be to have something that is NOT a dirt patch in our backyard?!?!?!

HAPPY FRIDAY {and Father’s Day} EVERYONE!

(PS - Day 1 of the patio process happened this week.  Can't wait to share the progress!)

Debris Be Gone!!

Remember this deliciousness?  {Yes, I still swoon over my hubby…thankyouverymuch!}  Here is a quick recap where we were over Memorial Day weekend.

Well after all that destruction went down, the hubby and I had a lot of clean up to look forward to.  I’m not sure who was dreading it more…me, who knew I wouldn’t be able to handle major wheelbarrow loads, and therefore wouldn’t be as helpful/quick/handy as my better half, or hubby, who knew he’d be taking on the brunt of this heavy lifting.

Lucky for us, we have fan-freakin-tastic neighbors {yup, the ones whose house we painted}, and the hubby volunteered to help us clear away our debris.  {Picture the clouds parting and the sun shining through...hallelujah!} 

We started the process on Saturday morning.  The boys used our two wheelbarrows and loaded up the concrete piles we made last week on demo day.  They made trips back and forth to the dump site until everything was gone.  Clearly, I am not as strong as them so I concentrated my efforts where I would be most helpful.  I cleared the area of all the flagstone that made up the old patio.  The prettiest pieces, I carried to the other side of our house to continue a path we started a while ago.  The remaining bagillion pieces I stacked up in the corner of the yard so the boys could easily load and dispose of them after all the concrete was gone.  {Don’t worry, I kept a handful of slates in case we need them in the future.}

By the time all the flagstone was up, the boys were almost done with the concrete.  I NEVER, EVER, EVER would have thought clearing our disaster area {aka backyard} would only take us a handful of hours, but when you have two strong guys working together, things go MUCH more quickly! :)


Here is what the area looks like now...after my hubby weed-whacked all of our rogue plants growing in the area.

Now it’s time to impatiently wait for the rain to stop, so our concrete guy can get back on schedule and come give us the hardscaping of our dreams!!