PATIO!!!!!

We saved up this winter for our big patio project. We've lived in our house for five years and haven't had any sort of shade in our backyard. We've slowly been working on our yard and hit a wall when it got to the porch/patio part because of the expense. Well, Paul decided to build it himself (with the guidance of his Dad of course!) He did a great job and I couldn't be more proud of him. We love it sooo so much and are enjoying the shade and coolness it has brought with summer rapidly approaching. Also, I need to mention that I gave Paul full freedom to spend as much money as he needed to get the job done properly. We didn't want to take any shortcuts and I am always wanting to do things for as little money as possible. We saved up more than we anticipated that it would cost so that way I wouldn't stress about money. Our planned worked and we come in right around budget :)

He had to first cut holes in our current cement for the footings, which you can see off to the right. 

 

He had to drill into the cement and then dig out all the dirt underneath with his bare hands! Then he filled them all w/ a ton of cement and put the footings up.

Next up, he took the tiles off in preparation to cut into the roof.

We then ordered the wood and it all needed to be painted white. Paul spent the next week getting it painted with a primer and two coats of white paint. He HATED this part of it, but he still did a great job and the paint job is perfect. He even woke up early a few mornings to get a head start, and we all know how much he likes his sleep!

Such a good little helper. She had a fun time watching all the progress.

Paul was super excited to get the first beam up. You can also see in this picture how he cut back into the roof.

Kitana and I spent a long time outside watching and taking pictures. We had fun passing the time together while Zara took her naps. 

We also enjoyed watching the trees bloom. It was fun to see their progress every day!

She loves to be like Daddy and is not scared of anything. 

This is the last picture I have of it. It is actually all completely done now, but I don't have a picture of it yet b/c Paul still wants to finish touching up the paint and has all his tools and stuff out. I want the final picture to be pretty...so I'll just have to wait. But it looks amazing and my husband is the best :)

We moved her play house in the grass during the patio building process and told her the grass was "safe." Because there was all sorts of falling debris, like wood and nails. She had fun eating snacks and watching daddy.

We also finally got to finish our retaining wall! We started it three years ago and then put all our projects on hold while we did the Dave Ramsey plan and got out of debt. We ended up having a little more money then we had originally planned on so we got to tie up a couple of our other unfinished projects. I must say, our backyard is starting to get pretty cozy :)