Saturday, July 9, 2011

Besides the whole baby thing, we've also decided to build a back patio area that isn't a 10x10 slab.  It's so damn hot here that our outdoor area is nearly unusable in the 30+ consecutive days of 100°F+ temps here in Texas.  It was a big decision, and low and behold, it'll be a big patio.  It'll be partly covered and partly open.  It'll certainly be enough area to do whatever social consumption activities we care to.  I'm also on board to make sure we have a good grilling area.  After scouring the Metroplex for contractors, I found two companies that will take care of the different parts.  One will do just the stamped concrete and one will do the grill and shingled arbor covering.

Phase I - prepping the ground
With Courtney and I often disagreeing on the most basic design and decor options, I was very surprised (and also not surprised at all) with our ideas.  We decided to just draw out what we wanted and then meet somewhere in the middle.  Turns out we weren't far off at all.  After I e-mailed her my first draft, she called immediately and said that her's was basically the exact same thing.  Great minds do think alike after all I suppose.  With our designs in hand, we broke ground on the project on Thursday, July 7th.  The crews began with prepping the ground and outlining the forms.

Stamped concrete design.  The left section is
ground level and the circled section is a step up.
After collaborating with the arbor designer, I went to my trusty ol' Photoshop and set up some basic maps of how everything will look so that there is little-to-no confusion on what the layout will look like.  I'm able to be home for this part, and the sub- sub- foreman already had some questions about our flags that we had originally put out.  I sent him to the drawings and then he "got it."  It's amazing what a little communication can accomplish.

With the rebar in place and everything seemingly in place, we're just waiting on the electricians to arrive on Monday to rout some power to the area.  It'll be a pretty simple job, but I'm not about to pull a Ben Franklin and just jump right into it.  I'll leave it to the pros on this one.  More to come...

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