Sunday, December 12, 2010

The Long Awaited Patio Conclusion

Since it's been so long since I've talked about our fancy patio, I'll do a quick rundown to get everyone up to speed. 

Way back in June or so, we had a lot of concrete poured in our yard.
This concrete was stamped with a slate texture and had a diamond expansion joint pattern put in.
Ok, not -all- of the concrete got this special treatment. Our mid-yard/courtyard got regular no-nonsense concrete wrapped around our funky, useless wall.
Gladly accepting suggestions for that wall!
We were really enjoying the patio and quickly set up the only outside furniture we had.
Despite our enjoyment of the cool gray, we had already agreed to have the stamped concrete stained. So, staining day came and we received a very oddly shaped checker board.
We both walked around the yard in silence. I'm sure we were both questioning our decision and spent the rest of the night fighting the urge to panic.
We just weren't thrilled.
We were warned the color would not look great until the gloss coat went on. As we repeated those words, the hose was brought over to mimic a gloss coat on the new stain. It did look nice with a sheen, but that faded too quickly to keep us excited.
So we stayed indoors with the blinds shut.

Finally, the day to apply the gloss coat arrived and we were driven outside once again.
Ah! So much better than that dingy checker board! Now it was a high-gloss checker board!
We really liked it and it's continued to grow on us.
It feels like a swanky outdoor coffee shop.
Welcome.
We were afraid to walk on it for some time, but we finally did. Up close you can see how the acid stain settled in cracks and pooled elsewhere.

Fueled with a desire to be outside once more, we shopped for real patio furniture.
This set is actually huge (in my opinion), but is dwarfed on the patio.
I felt a dark set worked better with the color of the patio, plus it wouldn't be as easy to stain. Then again, it will probably show dings and scrapes very well.
These chairs are unbelievably comfortable even without cushions.
I couldn't help myself when I saw this cherry red umbrella. Plus, it's rectangular!
This is the table as it was shipped. Despite the description saying it was a transformer, Ced was pleasantly surprised to find out that it extends.
I was surprised to find out how it extends. The assumption was that it had loose leaves that you had to store elsewhere until they were needed. This amazing table stores them under the table top.
Not only are they stored there, they're connected, so you just unfold them and they swivel smoothly into place.

The ends are then pushed together. . .
and locked for stability.
This is unlocked, but you get the idea.
After playing with the transformation part a bit and testing out all the chairs, we decided to move everything indoors for the winter. We couldn't bear the idea of having brand new furniture damaged by the wet months before we even had a chance to enjoy it all properly.

Lucky for us, our slow decision making has prevented us from purchasing other dining furniture, so we already had a great space to store the patio furniture. We like this set so much we're debating on skipping the idea of acquiring yet another table and just leaving this space available for the patio furniture to come inside.
Naturally, the kitties think this is a great plan as well.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Tight Spaces

Recently, our office of thirty or so people has relocated to a much smaller space that was originally suited for about a dozen people. Although the move is temporary, our cramped quarters can make working difficult. 

You see, we each have to share a desk. The desk spaces are adequate for this, but when you also have large office equipment eating up valuable real estate, the work space becomes non-existent. 

Luckily, we have fabric cubicle walls that present a space-saving option - wall pouches. 


My particular space does not have any room on the desktop for small items like pens, pencils, scissors, etc., so I whipped up a couple of wall pouches to pin on the walls to hold these items.


Although these are temporary solutions, I had fun sprucing them up with buttons and designs in hopes to make light of an crowded situation.

Chilly Pigeon Weather

These little guys spent their morning fluttering between the heat vents on our neighbor's roof. It makes me want to knit pigeon sweaters.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Let's Shine Some Light

This weekend we decided to install lighting in the double-bay garage. Turns out, the builders of these homes decided that a teensy wall-sconce-type light was sufficient to illuminate both the single and double-bay garages.


They were wrong.

Seeing that a gloomy winter was approaching and we really wanted to continue work on the Cozy, we were in serious need of luminescence.

Before diving into Do-It-Yourself mode, Ced fished around for quotes and got some outrageous numbers back. It seemed there are no local electricians, so a trip to Home Depot was made. Friday morning I awoke to a fresh pile of wire, lighting fixtures and a pleading smile. Once coffee was had, I ventured into the double-bay where Ced was busy marking off the ceiling.


With glee in his voice, he described the steps we needed to take to get the job done and how positively wonderful it would be to be able to see what we were doing in the garage.

Ok, he didn't use the words "positively" or "wonderful", but he was excited about having light. He also mentioned that some local Do-It-Yourselfer insisted on six lighting fixtures instead of the four we originally planned. Hey, might as well.

Our spirits were high and we began the drilling process.

Let me pause the journey to indulge you in this step.

We marked where the center of the light fixtures would be on the ceiling. Ced then handed me the power drill with 4" hole saw attachment and said "Saw away!" Excited about the prospect of drilling a large hole in the ceiling (new for me), I happily positioned myself on the work table and pulled the trigger.


As you can see, standing underneath the hole you are drilling in a dry-wall ceiling is not the brightest thing to do. But I had a good reason for doing so - I'm short.

We have a double-layer dry-wall ceiling and no ladder high enough to allow me to stand beside the spot I'm drilling while still maintaining decent leverage and pressure.

Ced laughed.

I handed him the drill and said, "Go forth," which he did.


Cleanly.

Once the holes were drilled and light boxes set, we ventured to the attic.

Pay no mind to our filthy fingerprints.

There is only one access to the attic and that is through the master closet. This isn't a problem except for when you want to access the garage attic, which was sealed off. Ced spent some time in the attic in the beginning of the week figuring out access points for dropping lights. His solution - cut a hole. Luckily, the hole he cut did not create a rustic skylight, but allowed direct access to the double-bay attic.

Perfect!
Except it was a very, very small attic with a small access hole cut into it. Lucky for us, I could fit. This, of course, meant I was the lucky duck running wire for our new light installations.


Truth be told, I was pretty excited about being the one scurrying around the rafters dropping lines, but don't tell Ced.

My job was simple enough, daisy chain the boxes and don't fall through the ceiling.


So, I scuttled around on the beams and boards, running wire and being very careful.



After the boxes were connected, we concocted a way of fishing the wire out into the main attic so Ced could properly splice them together. (The initial electrical installation ran the garage lighting wire into a sealed off area inside the sealed off garage attic. It was silly, but I can only assume there was some sort of rationale behind it.)

Finished with running wire, I exited the small attic
 and ran to the garage to admire our handiwork.

When Ced finished the splicing, we both worked our way around the garage ceiling installing the light fixtures.


All six.

With a flip of the switch, we finally had bright light. No corner of the garage fell dark. The spacing of the light prevented shadows in our work areas. We could finally see!


For the rest of the day we would run out to the garage to make sure it was as bright as we had first witnessed.


It was.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Things aren't just things

I like stuff.

I like having stuff.

I like looking at stuff.

I like looking at my stuff.

As materialistic as those statements are, they're true. The thing is, I just didn't realize how much I enjoyed having my stuff around until I'd been deprived of it for a long time.

Between bouncing around apartments during my college years and moving 4,319,834,987,349 miles away from everything I knew, I haven't seen my stuff in years. Due to the absence of my things and my continued existence (something I was sure would be affected by boxing away my belongings), I concluded that I could easily live without my stuff and pondered why I even bothered having so much stuff in the first place. Conversations were had about the freedom of not having stuff on display. How clean, uncluttered and carefree living seemed without having all the things you thought you needed within arm's reach.

I convinced myself it was good to not have an identity.

Then my bookcase showed up.


The bubbling anticipation of unpacking boxes of books and knickknacks was overwhelming. I contemplated taking vacation just so I could finish painting and installing the thing, but that seemed excessive. Instead, I bided my time and worked on my identity holder when I could. 

 

It was finally time to crack the tape of our moving boxes and discover what goodies lay inside. All the things I forgot I missed stared up at me. All my books, design magazines, trinkets, pictures, bangles, and shiny bobbles gleamed up at me waiting to be rediscovered. Memories came flooding back as I recalled where and how each item was acquired, where its last location of display was, how that one item really helped polish off the ambiance of the room. 

 
As I pulled myself out of my thoughts I realized how wrong I was to leave all my things packed in blank cardboard boxes. As each items was carefully brushed off and placed in its new home I realized it wasn't just my things I was packing away out of sight for so long, it was me.


Sunday, August 8, 2010

The Patio Project

When we first moved in, the yard was a clean slate. Really. Everything that had ever lived there was dead and gone and the previous owners had never attempted adding to their outdoor living. . . which was really great for us and our imaginations. 


For months we pondered what could possibly fill the space outdoors. We searched for inspiration in garden books and magazines, while ambling down aisles in the local home improvement stores, and on neighborhood walks to see what other residents had chosen.

Patiently, we collected ideas and concepts and made a few attempts of improvement.

We knew there would be a walkway on the left side of the house, so an afternoon was spent notching out the steep hill in the backyard and gauging the grade of the yard.


We moved on to other projects inside, still mulling paver options and how to move forward.

Then the wet season came.
Before we could even bother with sidewalks and patios, drainage needed to be handled.

Once the skies had cleared and the last bit of standing water had evaporated, a trencher was rented to start the tedious task of burying pipes.
Unfortunately, we waited a bit too long after the floods and our ground had turned into concrete. Three long days were had hauling the trencher around the yard and moving dirt out of the shallow trench cupful by cupful.
After that hard lesson was learned, we put our heads together and finally decided on what we wanted. Ced whipped up a schematic so we would be armed with our plan when contractors came calling.
 (Blue indicates drainage pipes, red indicates concrete)

We were lucky enough to find a great experienced contractor who answered all of our annoying questions and got to work.
After four long days, a broken trencher, and a confession that we have the hardest soil ever encountered in fifteen years of business, the drainage was finally installed.
The guys then moved on to setting up the forms.

This process went much smoother, since no digging was involved.

Ced and I helped coerce the arc into something smooth and pleasing and adjusted the transition points to our liking.



There was a minor hiccup when we discussed the expansion joints with our contractor.

We had wanted a large diamond pattern cut into the concrete. Although this was indicated on our plan, our contractor had forgotten this and argued that it would be more work than he anticipated. After an awkward conversation, he agreed to do the work if we laid out the pattern.

Being the giant nerds we are, we quickly agreed and strung out the pattern. This visualization of the pattern confirmed the awesomeness to be.

Then pouring day came.

The truck pulled up at 5:30 and they began pumping concrete in at 6.


The crew quickly worked the concrete into the forms and our dreams of concrete goodness came true.

After all the concrete was in place and smoothed, the expansion joints went in.
When it was time, the patio and gate walkway were stamped with a rough slate pattern.
I was really surprised by the amount of work that went into stamping the concrete. I had assumed the stamps would be applied when the mud was still soft. Turns out, they wait for it to almost set up and pound the stamp into it. I still don't quite get the process, but am thrilled with the results.


Although only the gate side yard and the back patio got the special treatments of expansion joints and stamping, the rest of the concrete looks great.

We opted for a simple side entrance that transitions to the fancy stuff right past the gate.
Our "midyard" has become a breakfast nook, of sorts.
During our initial planning, we weren't going to invest in adding concrete down this side of the house. When the contractors came out, they convinced us that it'd be worth it in the long run. I'm quite glad we did.

I'm still not thrilled with the strange wall that came with the house, but I'm trying to warm up to it.

We think the patio looks great in its natural color, but we really wanted that extra punch, so we're having it stained.
Now don't judge the color by this photo. This acid stain allows varied coloration, which is really what we had in mind when designing the patio.
The plan was to have the patio stained all one color, but our color guy brought in some photos of an alternating color design that we both drooled over.
Although this photo is of freshly stained concrete, it's lacking the glossy sealer that will really bring out the color.
Unfortunately, the sealer cannot be applied for a few weeks, so I won't have a finished product to show any time soon.

The finished product will look similar to this wet area. Oooohh, shiny.

We've only had the patio/sidewalk/midyard for four days and it has proven to be an excellent addition to our home.

I believe our furry friends agree.