New Pool Patio- The Pour

So after several long (back breaking) weeks of demo work around the pool area and garage walk, several tons of concrete has been bashed, hauled and piled into a dumpster.  We have moved all kinds of dirt into mounds around the pool area for later use and the area has been framed, stoned and leveled off so we're ready for Paul and his crew to come pour our concrete!  Side note- Paul is a buddy of ours from high school and he does gorgeous concrete work if anyone's looking!

Back to my posting..

Forgot to mention in my previous post that during this whole spring pool opening and demo work, we had a TON of glass tiles crumble off.  We knew we had some tile repair in our future, but weren't planning on having to do this much repair at this point in time...    we had a few estimates on repair and even removing the tiles all together, but it was ridiculously expensive so my Jack, I mean my hubby- who is a jack of all traits took it upon himself to repair the tile work himself.  This was him redoing the tile in the first photo below. There's also some photos of the guys framing out for the pour.

 We definitely went from a small side patio to a huge area to party hardy on this summer!   Can't wait for you guys to see the finished product.  Check these pics out.

Hey guys, pool party isnt until next month, didn't you get the memo?   These little feathered friends loved watching the guys work.  But Tim didn't like the gifts they left behind on his pool surround.  (duck poop).

After Paul had the molds in place the guys were all set to order the concrete and get it poured!   Paul came back the following weekend and they bumped out the pours in a few hours.  We were all a little nervous that the trucks werent going to make it up our mountainous driveway.  They did alright tho...

Of course Tim couldn't let Paul have all the fun!  Look who hopped on the crete-mobile to take it for a spin!   Let's see what kind of driving skills you got Timmy!

After several loads and a well conformed team effort, the patio started filling in rather quickly...

 Just some finishing touches smoothing it all out...

The next morning I couldn't wait to put out some chairs and a few flower pots to see how they fit!  I was so happy with the results!

Here's a few photos a few weeks later after we bought some new patio furniture.  As you can see the color is still STARK WHITE which will change this summer once we do the acid stain, but the size and ease of the space is absolutely perfect now!  

Remember the before?  Big difference, huh? We actually have space for pool chairs! :)

Quackin' Up over our new Ducklings

Somehow a quick trip To Tractor Supply ended up meaning we adopted two new members to the family... baby ducks!  It also means my $30 shopping trip ended up costing me over $100.  Doesn't it always seem to happen that way when it comes to taking on new pets?   They were just too stinkin cute to pass up, we just HAD to bring some home.  If it were up to Kayla we would've taken all of them, and no that's not an exaggeration- I believe there were close to 30 all together.  Tim would've died, then he would've come back to haunt me for certain if we adopted 30 ducklings!  

Kayla picked out 2 baby khaki campbells and carried them home in a little cardboard box on her lap the as we listened to them cheep all the way home.   Once we got home we quickly scavenged for an old plastic tote and started setting everything up for our new little ones.   Kayla was so excited she wouldn't leave their side for the first few hours. She called her Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop to come over and see what she got.  We were all standing in the driveway talking about how cute the little guys were when Tim came home. He instantly knew something was up by the looks on our faces. It was so funny.  Tim needed some nurturing into the idea of having farm animals running around here.  Of course we showed him the babies and he grew fondly almost immediately.  Mom said "ya know, ducks do better in groups", the next day Tim and Kayla went back to TS and picked up two more ducklings to add to our little flock.   With 4 new ducklings our house was starting to turn into a what would one day be a farm. Baby steps...

 Cutest things ever.

Blizzard at Indian Springs

Its March 5th, and this is the time you picture windy brisk days, flying kites in the park.  Not today!!  We got dumped on with a ton of snow and we're doing all we can to keep up on it around here, which isn't easy.  It's always a pretty sight til you get stuck shoveling, plowing, blowing, salting, pushing and all of the above.  Luckily we have a cozy fire going in the fireplace and I have the crock pot going with venison stew. Before you wonder-yes, we eat deer, yes we're a family of hunters (bow hunters), yes my husband got this deer we're about to eat, and YES we got it on this very property!  I wrote a previous blog post from November when he got the buck and how he got it with some photos.  The house smells amazing and I can't wait to get a big bowl of this soon.

Until then, here's some photos of what its like outside! Blizzard of 2015

New Pool Patio- Demo Days

One of the things we loved about this property, was the fact it had an inground pool.   The pool itself needed some work (is that a surprise?) but we knew it had a good foundation to what could be a spectacular outdoor space.  The pool is situated in our side yard, but oddly there is no patio or decking large enough to put a table and chairs or some lounge chairs out to enjoy some cocktails during the hot summer days.   Cocktails poolside is a MUST for the Verna household.  This was one of the bigger projects we decided to take on this spring.

What went from a small patio area pool side to a new pool patio surround became a big undertaking, but the final results are better than we could've imagined.    Again, this took some serious muscle on our parts, as we did a lot of the work ourselves- removing the old pool surround and excavating for a new pour.  Tim ended up renting equipment to do the digging and I worked Ole John (that would be our old John Deer tractor that is still going strong).  Together we kicked ass and rocked this project!

Here's some before, and demo photos, this was several weeks in the making- don't think this was an easy task by any means!

BEFORE:

Before garage skirting:

DEMO WORK, aka TEAM WORK!

That's me, working Ole John with ma hubby... we make an excellent team!

After the soil was dug out and hauld away, the existing surround was sledged and hauled out. 

Means the boys were on a roll rocking the sledge, once they wrapped up the pool surround they moved onto the garage skirting that was cracked, settling and just plain ugly. We decided to have the new walk poured at the same time as the pool patio.  SOOO glad we decided to do that because it made a HUGE difference! 

The girls even hopped in on this one... thanks Kayla and Bella!  Girl Power!

 To be continued.....

Recessed Lighting!

So our kitchen is a huge work in progress... and although we got the old indoor/outdoor carpeting ripped out, the snowflake glitter wallpaper taken down and put up a fresh coat of pain on the walls and trim, there's still a TON of things that need to be done to make this a beauty.

As sad as I was to see this go, our gorgeous 1980's track lighting had to come down to be replaced with some recessed lights to make this kitchen shine bright like a diamond! haha

Before:

During: