It's all coming together

I gotta hand it to my husband. He's surpassed every milestone he set for himself. Well, okay... no really, he did. I'm quite proud of him. He finished the stucco. You can see the design of the stucco in the picture. We even stamped some sea shells into the stucco to give it more of a beach feel.

At this moment, he's outside priming the wall preparing it for painting. He even got one of those spray paint thingies that you connect to the can o'paint and it sprays evenly in a horizontal direction.

Ah, the reason I know it sprays horizontally, is because hubby tried to spray the top of the wall by holding the spray thingie vertically. Wouldn't work.

So, it was my job to find a paint brush (any brush will do, just find one) so that hubby could paint the top of the wall.

Of course, I wanted the wall to match the color on the house. Funny, no argument from hubby. We agreed on something. Yay! Now, the only container left with paint from when the house was painted more than ten years ago was in a large bucket with its label nearly worn off. Good thing Home Depot can read their own labels. They had the right color and mixed up what we needed. Couldn't get easier than that.

We're so close to finishing I can't wait. I've already called the screening company and they're putting us on their schedule for next week. Hopefully. If not, the week after that. Then when the screening is done, we get new patio furniture and new French doors to replace the sliding glass doors. It's going to be so awesome.

I can't wait to take my laptop out there and work. Bug free. Leaf free. In cool comfort with my bird and my dog playing while I work.

Ah, I'm almost there...

Home Remodel Part Two

I helped my husband build a two foot concrete wall around our patio this weekend, leaving two 40 inch spaces for new screen doors. We're getting our patio screened in. But, dear hubby wants to do the concrete work himself. Like I mentioned in my previous post, he doesn't know what he's doing.

But he said he'll learn as he goes.

Uh huh. Well, he did. Sort of.

I can honestly say, it's the best wall I've ever seen built. Then again, I've never seen a wall built before.

To be truthful, it turned out a whole heck of a lot better than my wild imagination had doomed. The wall is straight. Pretty much. It's level. I'm taking hubby's word for that. And, it's the same height all the way around. That was the last thing I asked him to check before he called it done.

I did help too. Although, he wouldn't let me carry concrete blocks. He wouldn't let me slop mortar. But, I was in charge of the cement mixer we rented from Home Depot.

Did you know Home Depot rents portable cement mixers? I didn't.

I do now.

I never mixed a bag of mortar in my life, but I sure learned out this weekend. Just add the water a little at a time. Best tip I can give you.

Hubby's woes started early. He almost called it quits after laying the first few blocks. Nothing cooperated. The straight line. The block. The mortar. The lifting. Those darn blocks weigh something like 40 pounds each. I guess that's why hubby didn't want me lifting them. And the fact that if I dropped one it would crack our pool deck.

Oh, did I mention that this wall borders our pool's cool deck? And, guess who was in charge of making sure all the mortar didn't stick to the cool deck? Me, of course. Hubby didn't make it easy either. He slopped a lot of mortar around, not caring much where it went. Cool deck. Patio tile. Wherever.

I put myself in charge of cleaning tools after we were through for the day. Trowel. Shovel. Levels. Little pointy thing. The little pointy thing helped make sure the distance between the blocks remained constant. Don't know what it's called. Just called it the little pointy thing. And, it didn't work very well.

Or, I should say, hubby didn't use it very often. He said he could "eyeball" it and knew how far to put the blocks.

Uh huh.

That's why at the end we had to put in nearly an inch or so of mortar between blocks because we ended up with more space than blocks. But, who's pointing fingers? Not me. But, hey, we're done. The wall is up. No more concrete.

Ri-ight.

Our patio roof used to be held up by four by four cedar posts. Well, hubby cut those down and put up these post shorer things that hold the roof up. Yep. I learned what they were because I had to order them. Didn't have a clue what I was talking about, but I managed to order 4 of them.

Silly me, I thought we were going to replace those cedar posts with new four by four posts. Boy was I wrong. Hubby enlightened me today. "We're going to have to rent the cement mixer again," he tells me.

Guess why?

The posts are going to be replaced with concrete blocks. All the way up to the roof. Hmmm. The roof is higher than my hubby is tall. I can see ladders in the future, or would he stand on the new wall he created? Hmmm. Only time will tell.

But, I must admit. If this new screened in patio turns out like I'm imagining now, it could really be something. I'm getting excited about it.

Uh, maybe I should go back to thinking doom and gloom so I'm not disappointed?

The remodeling continues.