Success! Here are the patio pictures....

I was finally able to get the pictures to upload, so here are the finished pictures of the patio paver project...

This is before they broke up the existing cement around where the spa was, plus the area in the foreground.  You can see in the upper left corner where they dug to cement the lamp post template...

Below is after they removed all the cement, added more dirt and then laid down sand, which was raked smooth looking like a zen garden...(minus the footsteps of course....)

This is how the finished paver conversation area looks at dusk...you can see the finished lamp post in the upper left corner....

Below is the circle pack design...this is where we will place our portable fire pit, once my husband builds it...

The paver color is Toscana made by Cambridge

Below is the view from our back slider looking toward the conversation paver area....we had them put a trim of the pavers around the cement area of the original patio to tie it all in....The table and four chairs are new and match nicely with the cushions I bought last Spring...  I was able to find four more cushions of the same style to add to the two new outdoor wicker chairs we purchased for the paver area....

Below is one of the new outdoor wicker chairs with the same cushions from last year...

Better view of the table and chairs outside the window of our great room...

Below, our Yellow Bank Roses are in bloom and giving us lots of privacy on the back shared fence with our behind neighbor ...

Below, is one of our five new LED landscaping lights which only use 1 watt of electricity and the bulbs are guaranteed for eight years...

Below are the White Bank Roses I planted last April...they are beginning to bloom and are filling in the street side space where we needed more privacy.  I think (hope) this Spring, the roses will take off and really fill in the fence...(with a little help of some fertilizer and vitamin B-1...)

Below is a close up of the blossoms and buds

We are so enjoying the peace and quiet of our new outdoor space... I plug in my iPod doc and we can listen to music....So far, we are using the patio way more this way than we ever did with the spa...

You may notice if you enlarge the pictures, Izzy enjoys it too....she has two of her little "nesting beds" on each of the love seats...

Hopes and Dreams Alive and Well....

Today, my husband and I drove to state line to buy Lotto tickets for tonights Mega Million dollar jack pot of almost $400,000,000.00.  We also bought tickets for some of our friends who asked us to get some for them too...

We waited in line for 2.5 hours.  It struck me as I watched the line snake around the building, curving and swirling inside the parking lot and down the street, how each one of these people has big hopes and dreams.

We passed the time talking with others in line.  Everyone was thankful it was not too hot or too windy and shared stories of their lives,  plans for their millions, and various other topics of conversation... Everyone was friendly and considerate.  Security Guards insured no one cut in line ahead of anyone waiting...

My impatient husband was surprisingly patient and calm.  He even laughed saying, "What else do I have to do today?"  (Always happy to be retired....)

For those of you who might be contemplating standing in long Lotto lines one day in the future, you might want to consider bringing bottled water, a folding chair, an umbrella and a book to read.

Personally, I suggested to my husband we drive a little further to Baker next time.  I think it would have been much shorter.

**** Will be posting pictures of the patio tomorrow....****** (If I can get my pics to upload...been trying for the last two hours past midnight and no luck.  Keeps telling me my upload failed.  Tried both Safari and Firefox.  Any suggestions?)

Almost Done...

Today, the electrician came and finally got the lamp post finished for the patio.  The weather has been freezing cold and rainy the past several days...not the best for photographs of our finished project...but I will post some pictures as soon as the weather warms and we finish arranging the rest of the furniture.

We are very happy with the final results despite some glitches along the way.... Last Monday when the project was suppose to start, the contractor was informed the paver color we selected would have to wait until next week because they did not have the circle pack (circular design in the middle of the patio) in our selected color...only the square and rectangle pavers.

I LOVED the color we selected, but not enough to wait another week...NO WAY!  So he showed us some samples and we selected another.  I told him I did not want any gold...and he told me he remembered my preference from our first visit to his studio to view all the paver colors...

So we were going to start Tuesday morning, early.  The truck delivers the pallets of pavers, only to discover the circle pack pallet looked ALL GOLD!  When the contractor came over, he agreed and was shocked at the color.  He called his Rep to come over and meet us at our home.... Meanwhile, he had his crew go through the circle pack and hand pick out all the other colors which were NOT gold...

By the time everything was sorted out, we compromised on making a smaller circle pack so we did not have to use the gold pavers and scheduled to start at 7am on Wednesday morning...

While doing the job on Wednesday, the crew ran out of rectangles...so the contractor had to order more and thankfully got them over to us within an hour!  I decided since we had so many squares left over, why not trim our existing cement patio with the pavers to tie it all in with the paver conversation area....the contractor agreed to do it because we "had been so cool and accommodating".

After everything was finished, the contractor told us not to wet down the pavers or walk on them for one entire day to give the polymers time to set with the sand in between the pavers.  I was dying to organize the patio furniture...but I waited patiently...

We still have to build the patio table and unwrap all four table chairs and put all the cushions back on all the chairs...but we need nicer weather to do that...

Friday night, after playing Bingo up at the Rec center, we invited some neighbors over to see the pavers and to have a night cap.  It was chilly out there....but we were determined to enjoy the space...  We also have a portable fire pit, but I am still looking for a large round pan to put underneath to prevent the pit from leaking on to the pavers...  I need something about 27" in diameter...maybe a huge pizza pan...

My step-daughter and her husband drove up from California Saturday night and spent the night with us.  They came up for their wireless phone business.  They will be staying at one of the hotels Sunday and Monday and will leave Tuesday morning.  We had a nice lunch today and met them at their hotel and had more time to visit. We'll spend tomorrow afternoon with them too.

Stay tuned, I hope to have pictures posted before weeks end...

Character...

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."



John Wooden 

Faith...

"Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith."

Henry Ward Beecher


"As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit."


Emmanuel Teney

"Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into."

Mahatma Gandhi

Lots going on in our life right now...aggravated by the strong, cold winds the past several days...feel on edge, nervous and on edge...

Oh how I long for Spring...

Approval Granted!

Our contractor went to our HOA this morning and got our plan approved.  Starting next Monday we will begin our patio project to cover the space where I spa was, with pavers, add some landscaping LED lights and LED lamp post.

We have heavy winds today and the dirt the spa company used to fill in the hole is the worse dirt on the planet...it is like moon dust...it is the same color of sand and very fine and rocky...it blows everywhere.  We covered the area with tarps and then weighed it down with boards and rocks...so it looks horrible...but it helps keep Izzy from digging...well, most of the time.

This is what our spa looked like before it was removed:

Here is how the space where the spa was looks now...

Attractive, isn't it?  Oh...I cannot wait to get this fixed...all that cement will be removed and pavers put in its place...  Stay tuned for the final pictures of the result....

Flexibility...

"Blessed be the flexible for they shall not get bent out of shape."

~Betsy Shirley~ Buck Brannaman's step-mother.

Buck was the one who taught Robert Redford how to look like a horse whisperer, in the movie, The Horse Whisperer.  Buck was taught by Ray Hunt, and Ray was taught by the Godfather of Horse Whisperers, Tom Dorrance.  Look them up, very interesting stories.