The Patio

Since moving to this home, we have wanted to extend the patio and include a roof on it. We had looked into it before, but we had a difficult time finding a company that could do it for us. We knew what we wanted was beyond the skills of Brandon and his Dad.

Finally, in February we started looking into it again and we found Boyd's Custom Patio's based out of West Jordan. They quickly came out and got the measurements and gave us a quote. Amazingly, the cost was less then we had anticipated. We made arrangements to have everything ordered and we got on their installation calendar.

This is what the patio looked like before. We had a sandbox area on the left hand side. Finally, after a what felt like decades, the crew came out and started demolition on the old concrete.

The boys were astounded at how they removed the cement. Truthfully, so was I. Such a hot, hard, dirty job. They even removed the stair and poured new ones for us. It was awesome.

The crew was beyond courteous and they loved having the boys watch them through the back door. We really did do a lot of staring at them throughout the process.

Sadly, the process wasn't without casualties. While removing the cement they had to push back some of the sprinklers and this is what happened to one of the pipes. It caused us a HUGE headache later on, but we were blissfully ignorant at this point.

It was amazing to see the progress that happened in just one day. These guys worked so hard! By mid afternoon they hadn't left to go have lunch. I couldn't understand how they were still able to work without food in their tummies. Then, I did what any good 50's housewife would do, I made a plate of sandwiches and let them take some time to eat. They were so appreciative.

The next day the crew plus the cement guy came and started pouring the cement. This was also a pretty dirty job. I thought about how awful it would be to be married to a cement guy. You would  constantly be fighting the stains in his clothes. I felt gratitude that I didn't marry a cement guy, if only for this one reason. 

After a day of drying we were able to walk on it. Which amazed me. I saw how much wet cement they poured and I thought it would take a week, at least, to dry. 

Next, we waited and waited and waited for the next phase. Finally, the guys came and started putting up the structure. They came on such a rainy drizzly day. I'm surprised they got as far as they did in the process. They were soaked though before they finally said it was just too rainy to finish.

 By the end of the week though, the structure was up and ready for the stucco people. We waited and waited and waited some more. I would call the company and be given a day that they would come, and then they never showed up. I was so glad that we hadn't given them payment in full, because I could at least use that to threaten them.

When they finally showed up to deliver the supplies, I chewed them out a little bit. The fellow that came didn't speak any English, so I doubt my words even made sense to him. I was pretty ticked.

For the most part, they did a good job. There were two guys the did it. The experienced guy did the right side post, and the new guy did the left side. As a result the left side is just slightly crooked. I'm trying not to let it bother me too much.

They left extra stucco mud so when I get some motivation I'm going to use it to do some touch up on the back side of the house.

After some more miscommunication regarding the position of the post lights, we finally had a finished product. We did have to hire an electrician to come and install the fan, pot lights, post lights, and electricity ports above the post lights. He did a fabulous job and he also came in under budget. I would absolutely hire him again. He was a local guy too, which made it easy for him to work on the project.

Sadly, he left us with this hole in the kitchen wall and ceiling.  He had to pull electricity to the structure and this is where it happened to be. Brandon & I tried to think of something we could just hang there to hide it, but in the end, we decided to stop being lazy and repair it.

We have absolutely loved having the new porch. The boys love playing outside since the porch stays shady until 4pm. We've ordered a retractable shade to help with the bright sun that comes in after 4pm. Hopefully, by August, it will be here and installed. 

The other day the boys were playing charades with their BFF's out there. It was so cute. It has also made a perfect yoga area for me. I love to go out in the early mornings to practice yoga. We have a lot of birds around and there is always a cool breeze. Our plan is to keep saving up our money so  next spring we can purchase some relaxing patio furniture to go out there. It's been such a project, but it has made a huge difference for us.