When in doubt… paint it.

I guess that’s how I think anyway. When we first moved in back in March our patio looked like this…

The ground was just cement that had been painted gray, but was chipping and stained in some areas. Since Justin had since screened and tiled the entire patio we only had little slivers of this old gray cement peaking through. Like here…

here…

and here…

We have left the gray cement as is for a while now and I am sure most people wouldn’t even notice it. But it bothers me, so it was time to paint it. I fortunately had some left over paint from when I painted all of the beams and outdoor walls in our patio…

Before painting I swept all of the areas that needed paint and cleaned them with a rag.

Once I started painting, the difference between the old gray and the new tan was quite a contrast…

The hardest part was getting the small sliver of cement behind the large plants that we had planted next to the screen…

And speaking of these plants look how big they have gotten…

I really can’t get over how large they have become. Anyway back to painting. I had to use a small artist paint brush to paint this area…

I survived and made my way around the patio painting any cement I could see. And of course I have before and afters(if you click the photos they get bigger)…

It may not be a huge change, but I like it.

Since it is finally cool enough to open up the doors we are loving our outdoor area even more!

Lanscaping Phase #1

It has all begun. Brian from Horizon Landscaping chose a couple companies to complete some of the backyard projects that need to be finished before he gets going on the landscaping.  So last week, during the hottest week this year we had four guys out in our yard digging up trees and also digging trenches for the new irrigation.  I swear the heat index was like 110 degrees, poor guys.  They were here for about 7 hours and this is what we are left with…

They basically removed all of the hedges including all of their roots.  Also they added the much needed irrigation, including three drains that will remove the water from our backyard and let it drain out to the sewage system at the street.

Here is drain #1.

Here is #2 that Char man is checking out.

and #3.

Our yard is basically a big dirt pit right now, nothing pretty to look at.  It has to get a little worse before it gets better though!

Our yard does seems a lot bigger now without all of the hedges.

This is where the new magnolia trees will go.  We don’t necessarily want something so big in the yard, but we want the privacy from the neighbors, so the magnolias will be perfect.

We can’t wait for Brian to come out on Tuesday to plant the new trees and re-sod the yard.  We also are thinking about putting a garden in one of the corners back here and giving the fence a face lift.  Don’t worry we will keep you updated!