Patio Renovation - Mostly Finished

Its been a very busy week here but the contractors were able to wrap up the construction on Monday. There are some things we aren't going to be able to get to till spring now because the ground froze up so quickly on us. But the expanded patio itself is finished. There are a couple of things that got missed but nothing major. If it warms up a bit we can even use it (the grill typically sees action all winter anyway)! Some of the stuff that has been stored in the garage is slowly making its way back outside we need to add a extra long spout a drain pipe or I will have a river of ice going across it in a few weeks as we go through our regular snow, melt cycle here in Colorado.

Looking straight north. The old concrete fountain has been nicely integrated into the seating wall. You can just make out the downspout on the left side of the photo, the flow from that needs to be redirected.

Here you can see the fountain that was originally part of a garden bed and the entrance to the yard. Both of these stayed in place.

Looking more to the southeast, you can see entry and the kitchen with the grill in place and some of the stuff migrating back out of the garage.

And the Kitchen area it self with plenty of space to prep food! The space seems huge right now but I'm sure it will shrink as we bring stuff back out of the garage and give the jeep a place to stay in the winter.

Patio Renovation Phase 2

Now that the concrete has setup nicely its time to add the seating walls and the kitchen area. The weather has been kind of iffy the last week but the promise of warmer temperatures brought the contractor back out. He started with what we envision as a seating area and working in an existing concrete fountain that we already had. The fountain comes in three pieces and weights about 300 pounds when its all together. To add a bit of complexity the concrete patio slopes down from the house so the fountain, and the rest of the wall, had to be leveled out as they moved further away from the house.

Friday saw a lot of prep work and basic construction on the seating wall started. Saturday saw that wall completed and the beginnings of the outdoor "kitchen", really just a spot for the grill to sit with some extra "counter" space on either side for food prep. 

Friday, the work begins on Phase 2

Wrestling the fountain into position.

The fountain is in place at this point although it still needs to be leveled up.

I forgot to take pictures at the end of the day but the basic wall basically went about where the wheelbarrow is in this picture.

Here is where at by Saturday night.

The kitchen area was also started and you can see all the rock ready to be used on Sunday

Couldn't resist the full moon shot

The grill that will fit into the center of the kitchen area

Sunday brought a bit of a surprise with a couple of inches of snow falling overnight. Quite unexpected, and pretty normal for Colorado. Fortunately is warmed up quickly and they were able to finish the basic work on the kitchen.

A bit of a surprise for Sunday morning

Here we are Sunday afternoon, so much for 1.5" of snow!

The kitchen is about ready to go. We will get some kind of outdoor cabinets to go on either side of the grill or I will build them myself.

All that remains now is to cap the walls and we are ready for guests! After that they will restore the fences and the dogs will be able to roam free again!

Patio Renovation Phase 1

This has been a really busy year for just about everything except my hobbies! The latest renovation is expanding the patio into more of an outdoor living space. The original concept was just to add on to the existing concrete patio. However, after all the outdoor furniture and rugs had been removed from the old space we discovered that it had continued to crack quite badly. The contractor recommended we replace the old concrete at the same time so that everything would match. We bit the bullet and coughed up more cash to get the project done right. 

Phase 1 involved the destruction and removal of the existing concrete, digging out the area for the new concrete, prepping everything for the concrete pour and then pouring and finishing the new surface. The concrete is setting now under a bundle of thermal blankets as winter finally decided to arrive here in the middle of the project,

I really didn't keep a good photographic record of this project so it begins with the pile of concrete, the remains of the old patio. This is about half, one load has already gone to the dump or where ever they take this stuff.

The pile of concrete by the time I realized I had not taken any pictures of the work.

The edges are defined by the 2x4s and the wire mesh is in place

They were able to cut around the concrete base of the garden entry and the existing water fountain.

The concrete pour starts. I found the whole process rather fascinating.

Larry supervised the entire operation