outdoor | Operation Home

I am a lucky woman.

First, I get to stare at this all the time…

Relaxing on the sofa (I was sick that day) while a hot man performs manual labor in plain sight is pretty much living the dream (especially if you’re married to pictured hot man). Am I right, ladies?? Answer: Yes. Yes, I’m right. 😉

And now, thanks to all that manual labor, I also get to stare at our newly beautiful back yard as well. Before and after pics are totally my favorite things. Guilty pleasures, if you will. So, that’s what this post is gonna be. Before and afters of our yard. Now, keep in mind that “after” isn’t really a legit term since nothing is completely done yet. So, consider them “current”. And then give Joey a virtual pat on the back because he did this all himself. I had very little to do with it aside from taking pictures of him working. I’m nothing if not helpful.

First, let’s take a look at our covered patio shortly after moving in…

It was dirty, with spots of mold on the ceiling, and a decrepit railroad tie retaining wall which did nothing more than collect moisture and insects. We started by cleaning up the porch, and I sealed and enriched the terracotta floor, Joey replaced the moldy boards overhead, we had the exterior of the house painted, and Joey installed a new stone retaining wall (along with better drainage and many plants). He also built a stained wood surround for our HVAC unit (the inspiration for which I found on Pinterest).

Now, our patio looks like this….

And here’s the other view…

And now…

Detail shot!!

Isn’t the new retaining wall swell?? All the heart eyes. Right. Here. It’s so cozy out there now. We love just chilling out here with a glass of wine (or coffee — I remain convinced that coffee and wine can solve the world’s problems) while Lucas plays on this…

Oh, no. This is no swing set. We jokingly refer to this giant child-haven as the “Clarington Resort” (insert hoighty-toity accent and French-sounding “huh-huh!“). That’s the actual name of the playset, which we found at Costco. This monstrosity should have it’s own zip code if you ask me, thus the term “playset” does not suffice. The “Clarington Resort” (Huh-huh!) was purchased with our tax refund, and despite it’s massive size (it’s nearly 22-feet long including the slide), it’s actually quite charming with all the trees, all nestled up into the corner of our yard. When we saw it initially, set up on this high platform at Costco, I was all “No way. That thing is huge.” and Joey was all “Yes way. That thing is awesome.”. It took some serious convincing on Joey’s part to get me to agree to it. He measured it out for me and showed me how it would work in the yard, and then he gave me that look. You know the one. The you’re-totally-raining-on-my-parade-and-killing-all-of-my-dreams look, which is sometimes confused with the stop-being-bossy-and-just-trust-me-for-the-love-of-Pete look. And I caved. And now that all’s said and done, I’m kind of enamored of this little area. Like I said before…. it’s charming. And Lucas really seems to love it. Having our friends over just got way more fun for the kiddos, that’s for sure.

Joey boxed in the playground with landscaping timbers and used rebar to secure it to the ground (he drilled the holes for the rebar a size smaller and then pounded them in for a nice, tight fit). Then, he filled it with pea gravel which he found most inexpensively at a local place called Living Earth. It was $25 for an entire truckload (and this area took 4 truckloads or about 2 yards). He used concrete pavers for the walkway, and dug them in, surrounding them with decomposed granite (also found at Living Earth). He bordered the walkway with metal border and river rock. Then, he added sod (we needed a total of 1 palette which equaled about 150 squares for all areas of the yard).

Here’s a before shot of that area….

And Now:

And the other direction…

And now:

You can see that the HVAC screen is “L” shaped to still allow access to the unit, while making it more attractive from the porch. Here’s another view of it…

He also added a plant bed beneath our bedroom window for both drainage purposes and aesthetics…

Ignore that satellite dish… it’ll be gone soon. On the other side of the porch we have this area, which looked like this before…

And now looks like this…

One of my favorite new additions was Beyonce…

This lovely metal chicken was a housewarming gift from one of my best friends and is a total reference to this hysterical blog post. Beyonce makes our yard happy. And me. And I love her.

Here’s another seating area on the other side of the pool (I still owe y’all a completed pool post so ignore the pool for the time being)…

We still need to replace the fence. All in good time. This area around the pool mainly just needed some love. Joey pulled out all the weeds, trimmed the trees, added mulch, river rocks and liriope plants. We plan to also add more lighting around the pool eventually.

And finally, our view of the porch from the dining area inside. Here’s the before…

And now…

Seriously though, did Joey kick bootie out there or what?

I can’t wait to get out there and really enjoy it. Things still on the agenda include updating the decking around the pool, removing and replacing the remaining railroad ties along the perimeter of the yard, Making the fence look better, attacking the part of the yard on the side of our house next to the “Clarington Resort” (huh-huh!), painting the ugly brick surround for the pool filter (which I’ve tactfully cropped out of these pictures. You’re welcome.), boxing in the columns on the covered porch to give them a wood look, plus more. But seriously, I never thought that our backyard would look like this just 6 months after moving in. I’m fully in awe.

So, that’s where our back yard is currently. And we couldn’t be happier with it. Anybody else have yard projects going on right now?

One of my favorite features of our new home is the covered patio out back. I love the skylights and how from inside, it appears as though it’s an extension of the inner living space. This was one of the main items that I fell in love with when we first saw the house. And the fact that it had terracotta tile on the floor…. icing on the cake. Here’s a shot of the patio from before we moved in…

After we became somewhat settled, Joey got going like crazy working on the backyard. Honestly, he’s done so many things so fast, that I haven’t even had time to photograph them all to put them on the blog. Of the things that I did manage to photograph was the power-washing. He power-washed the pool decking and back patio, which made SUCH a difference. You can see the power-washed area below the line and pre-powerwashed above it….

He started working on this task while I was out running errands, which is when he sent me a text…

Brownie points for Joey! Heehee!! 🙂

Now, I will say, that we should’ve researched how to clean terracotta tile before power-washing. Neither of us thought about it beforehand, thus, we were equally surprised when the tiles dried and looked powdery and unfinished…

Honestly, the tiles were so dusty before that we were unsure whether we’d stripped the glazing off with the power-washer or they were already de-glazed before. Either way, we knew the tiles needed to be sealed to prevent staining and breakdown due to moisture. I went to Home Depot and the associate whom I spoke with recommended this…

It’s a penetrating sealer and color enhancer meant for stone, tile, grout, etc. and can be used for indoor or outdoor applications. This product was pretty pricey in my eyes. Around $40 per bottle, but the associate assured me that it was a great product that would last way longer than the less expensive topical sealers. So, I went for it.

Once I returned home, I prepped the surface. Even though we’d power-washed the day prior, it had been windy, thus, some dust and debris had repopulated the patio. I thoroughly swept, then vacuumed the patio to remove as much dust and dirt as possible. Because of the cost of the sealer, I wanted to be sure I gained as thorough of coverage with the least amount of waste possible. So, I decided to seal the patio by hand, rather than using a broom or mop.

I donned gloves and got going. The process was simple. Wet the sponge with sealer, press it into the tile and grout….

Then, come back 5 minutes later and remove the excess with a towel…

The first coat was VERY slow-going since the patio was soaking up a ton of sealer. It was easy to see where I’d already applied the sealer as it definitely enhanced the color as promised. Here’s what it looked like about a third of the way through…

You can see the beautiful tones of the tile coming out as well as the darker grout. I’d say the first coat took a bit over 2 hours to complete and used up about 1.5 bottles of sealer. I waited 30 minutes per the instructions on the bottle (and the instructions from my shoulders), then I applied a second coat (which went SO much faster). I completed the second go-around in about 30-40 minutes and only used up about 2/3 of a bottle of sealer since the stone soaked up so much less this time. The second coat really united the sheen, making the patio appear more consistent and finished. After I was done, I was left with this….

And the before for comparison (this was taken after power-washing)….

And the view from inside….

And the before, again…

I love it. It’s just so dang RICH!!! I feel like it looks like more of a floor now, less of a patio, which further contributes to that feeling that the patio is an extension of the indoor space. When the tiles were dry and powdery-looking, they resembled pavers to me. We had to avoid walking on the patio for 24 hours and couldn’t get it wet for 48 hours after sealing. I’m now working on getting our patio furniture cleaned up and rearranged, so I’ll give you that update once I’m finished. In any case, the hours and money spent on this project were well worth it. Both for looks and piece of mind that the flooring is now water resistant and more protected.

Future plans for the patio space involve:

1. Removing the decrepit railroad ties and replacing them with stone that’s much easier on the eyes (and will provide additional seating)

2. Beefing up the posts of the porch

3. Replacing the ceiling of the porch with a more durable material (maybe some type of vinyl beadboard). Right now, its a thin plywood, that we’re learning has been compromised in more than one spot with mold/mildew thanks to leaky, poorly maintained seals around the skylights. We’ve since fixed the leaks and sealed the skylights well, but the damage has been done, unfortunately.

4. Landscaping. Once Joey’s had his way, it’ll look amazing.

So, anyways, that’s the scoop on the patio! What outdoor projects have ya’ll been working on?