Sunday 18 January 2015

Patio progress


We moved into our house nearly a year and a half ago now.  We viewed it at the start of July when Arlo was only three weeks old, and one of the things I fell for when we first saw it was the garden. It's not the biggest, or most exciting of gardens, but there's a nice grass-y bit for Arlo to do running around on, and a good sized patio bit for me to do drinking rose in the sun on, and with the mental image of these two wonderful things in my mind, I said "we'll take it!" (or thereabouts - the actual negotiations were much longer and more boring than that, so we'll leave it there).

But the whole moving thing took quite a lot longer than we hoped, and by the time we moved in, it was well and truly winter, which meant we didn't really get to appreciate our garden until this year. And it's treated us pretty well - Arlo had his first wobbly steps out here, it played host to his first birthday party, and we had a few good splashy times out here during the long hot summer, in a paddling pool shaped like a crab.

So Arlo's had lots of play time on the lawn, but have I enjoyed much hazy summer al-fresco boozing in the evening sun? Not so much, because we've been trying to lay the patio for almost all of that time. When we moved in, the patio consisted of a cracked concrete base with tufts of grass growing through (you can see a little sliver of the concrete at the bottom of the pic above). It was ugly and not very safe so we chose some new tiles and decided to give it a bit of a spruce up. Alex is a landscape gardener, so it made sense for him to do it himself, but it's meant that he's had to do it at weekends which is not so much fun for him, and means it eats into his time with Arlo and makes him bloody tired, so we've been taking it slow. It's not finished yet BUT it's really taken shape in the last couple of weeks and it's mega exciting to see it coming together and plan for many BBQs and evening drinks by the time this summer rolls around... some in-between pics below, and prettier ones to come in Spring I hope, with plants and everything. But for now, and in the spirit of celebrating progress, here's our patio's journey in four stages...

Stage one: bashing up the concrete, bit by bit, until the floor was no more
Stage two: keep smashing until all you have left is rubble
Stage three: lose the rubble, get the tiles down
Stage four: nearly there



Home Etc

14 comments:

  1. It looks lovely; gorgeous patio for a splash of rose :) #homeetc

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    1. Thanks Jemma! It's made such a difference having it (almost) done this summer - rose awaits! x

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  2. I love seeing progress and before and after photos!! Your garden is lovely and you'll have many more happy memories there waiting to be made X #HomeEtc

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    1. Love a good before and after pic too - it's so easy to forget what things used to look like isn't it? Thanks for the read! x

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  3. Wow, I love those tiles! Your top pic reminds me so much of our garden - we have the same bits of new fence and a matching Ikea tent! Sadly we still have the cracked concrete and manky old tiles for our patio.... #HomeEtc

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    1. Ahh, the Ikea tent is great, isn't it? Many hours of fun have been spent in there so far this summer! xx

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  4. It is stunning. Those tiles are gorgeous and are going to look so fab. Eeeek I cannot wait to see the end result! Thanks so much for linking up, much appreciated :) Jess xx

    #HomeEtc

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    1. Thanks Jess! I am hoping to share the end result VERY soon, it would be nice to get it all finished before the Summer is over at least! Loving #HomeEtc as ever :) xx

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  5. Aaah it looks SO amazing!! What a difference — the block paving is so beautiful. Really mades such a difference having those lovely patterns that boring old patio stones. Can't wait to see it all when it's finished! Thanks so much for linking up with #HomeEtc — hope to see you again next week! x

    Caro | www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk

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    1. Thanks Caro - I never realised how many paving options there are, took a while to find these! Planning on popping back to #HomeEtc next week for sure, it's always such a lovely read xx

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  6. Those tiles are gorgeous and so much nicer than concrete (however fashionable that's supposed to be!) and I just love that cheery bunting too. #HomeEtc

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    1. Thanks so much - can't beat a good bit of bunting!

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  7. Wow what a lovely garden! Looks so neat and tidy! Love the new tiles x

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    1. Thank you - although I must admit it doesn't always look quite so neat and tidy - I was just looking out there this morning wondering how weeds can grow so quickly! Thanks for reading :) x

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