Patio Renovation...Part 1

My lovely husband likes to keep me on my toes and his latest way of doing that is to start a home improvement project.  I can tell when he's got an idea cooking because he folds his arms and squints a little and starts a sentence with, "What would you think if we..." and we end up doing something crazy like remodeling something or opening a book store.  I decided long ago to just go with it because it usually ends up pretty cool.  If it was left to me, nothing would ever change.  Ever.  But, that's not how it is, or even how it should be, so I guess it's quite a blessing we ended up together.

If you are not into home improvement projects, skip this post because it is completely eaten up with it.

Stage one in the renovation was to clear out all the junk on the patio.  Dog houses included.  This thoroughly confused one of our dogs and I watched her sniff around where her house had been and she looked at me as though asking for help.  I showed her where her house was and she huffed about it for a minute before going in.  We had a TON of stuff out there, man!  A literal TON.  Well, maybe a half ton.  Okay, a quarter ton.  That's still a lot, right? 

The next step was to power wash the flagstone.  I always thought it was pretty, but with it being outside, it was hard to keep clean and I never noticed how dirty it really was.  Here is a  5-year-old picture of the flagstone before washing it.  Also, our patio is now covered.  And I am no longer that thin.

And, a picture of the flagstone with a dog sitting on it:

I couldn't help myself.  She's just so darn cute. 

So we got all the stuff off the patio and now our yard looks like Sanford and Son set up shop there.  I am a bit of a neat freak so it is vexing to say the least but my mantra since starting this project is, "It will all be worth it in the end".  Actually, I have a lot of mantras lately but this one applies to a whole mess of things in my life.  Maybe you should try it too! Or "Count to 10" or "Take a deep breath" or "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me".  Give it a try.  Or don't.

More on the renovation in the coming weeks.