Summer Recap - The Patio Project

Some of you may remember me posting in June about our patio renovation. I wish I was joking, but we finished the last bit this past Saturday.  To say there were bumps along the way would be an understatement.  The initial plan was to paint and put down new outdoor carpeting...  we know full well at this point: plans with a 100 year old house will need much wiggle room.

The before shot: See the dark ceiling and astro turf flooring

First I ordered new carpet and had an install date.  So we scurried to paint and tear up the old astro turf.  During this we discovered the left support post has some dry rot and needed replacing.  We also found the cement caps had seen better days and figured while we were tearing down, may as well do those too.

This meant organizing the cement guy and post guys' schedules before the carpet install.  We really didn't want to risk getting paint on the flooring.

Here you see the new post and cement topper are on at this point and lucky us, before the carpet date.  Now comes a near one month stretch between the 1st carpet guy never showing, the fight for my huge deposit back and a new installer, date, etc.

Actual carpet install day came and they did a beautiful job.

However, the right side cement topper still had not been installed.   Here comes the crazy part of the reno:  The cement guy comes back to finish, busts the old cap off and a HUGE SWARM of hornets comes out.  I literally watched my contractor running down the road swatting and tearing off his shirt.   *facepalm*  Insert call to Orkin Man here.   Thankfully, my contractor was not allergic, was understanding, and did come back after the recommended 24 hours on the Orkin spray.

This shot was taken yesterday afternoon.  One final paint touch up.

You really can not tell that post is any different than the other 2.  Our carpenter was amazing and fast!

We added a new energy efficient light, house number plaque, and repainted the shutters.  I tore the plastic scalloping around the storm door window off.  It gave the old door a new face.

I stripped the layers off the wrought iron handrails, gave them a new weather proof coating and love how they look now.

When we bought the house one of the things I loved most was the huge front patio and always intended to fix it up.  I had no idea what I had signed up for! There was so much weather sealant, paint and caulking added this summer it will live another 100 years.