The Patio Reveal

I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for before and after pictures. I follow quite a few blogs that document projects (big and small) and always show before and after pictures. And it never fails, every single time I see these amazing transformations, I feel inspired to make my own transformations in our home.

Well, I'm so excited to finally share one of those transformations with you guys. Our new patio! YAY! I've looked and looked for a before picture that is a true representation on what we started with, but apparently we didn't deem it worthy of a photograph. And I can honestly say I know exactly why ~ it was UGLY! It basically consisted of a concrete slab with a good size dog kennel. Not very useful AT ALL. The first thing to go was the dog kennel,... and to think that we were so excited to have gain that extra space.

Anyway,  after a few long years of a very blah and way underutilized patio, last year we decided to revitalize it by expanding it's size and re-doing it with brick pavers. We went, picked out our pavers and chose the first week in June to get busy. Little did we know that the first week in June would be the hottest of the year, but we were determined to get it done. We hired Juan, a VERY hardworking man we found through my mom's old church, to work with Scott on prepping the area for the pavers.

I know I went a little arrow crazy here, but I wanted to point out the old slab, how far out we were extending it and Juan, our shy little workhorse.

So once the ground was prepped and leveled, it was time to start laying the pavers. Scott and I worked together on this and all I can say is holy crazy, hard, exhausting work, Batman!

After about 6 days of nothing but hard back-breaking labor, we finally had our brick patio. That alone was a HUGE improvement. And thanks to my wonderful in-laws, we also had a nice gazebo to place our table under and offer some protection from the sun.

Unfortunately, a fierce rain-wind-thunderstorm of the likes of Kansas took out our gazebo, leaving us once again exposed to the elements and rendering the patio blazing hot, sunny, and less-than-enjoyable.

So Scott and I talked about exactly what it was that we envisioned when we re-did the patio last year and immediately started doing some research.

And this, my dear friends, is what we ended up with:

Which by the way, is exactly what we had envisioned once upon a time, not so long ago,... a nice big cedar pergola. We had it stained and wired for lighting and a ceiling fan. I'm so happy to report that we are all totally in love with our new outdoor space and definitely enjoying spending a lot more time outside these days.

And just in case you were wondering, this is what it looks like at night:

Isn't it purty?

OK, so just so that I may have my very own before and after photos, here we go...

ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, here's our patio:

Before:

After:

 

Did I already mention we're in love?