A Patio Update

One of my first posts on this blog was the success we had staining the concrete on our patio.  It turned out to be one of my favorite projects we've done.  Since it is our most popular and visited post so far, we wanted to share this update with you. Here we are a year later.  While we still l.o.v.e. the over all look of the stained patio, 

(move Dex, fine!  He's such a ham.)

it is starting to show some wear.

This is the largest problem area.

As much as we loved the ease of the Behr Concrete Dye Kit, the sealer has left much to be desired.  It was supposed it give it a wet look, while retaining good traction.  Well, we never did see the wet look, and as you can tell our dye is coming up.

For the most part, the dye is intact.  However, there are a couple of spots around the edge of the concrete that are literally lifting up from the concrete, exposing that bland salmon colored concrete.  

Our solution?  We we haven't solitified one yet, we're still in brainstorming mode.  Our thoughts were to buy the individual cans of dye, restain, and then buy a better quality sealer.  This sealer just didn't cut it in our book. We're under the impression that if the sealer had been more durable, this may not have happened at all.

Just thought we'd share with you this temprary blunder.  

Any thoughts or your opinions?  We're hoping to get this done before cold weather comes through.  However, given the fact we live in sunny southern California, we still have some time.  

Time to go.  I have a very full to-do list, and I need to get started. Thanks for reading.

Happy Monday,

Kristin

back in the saddle...and a broken wall

Sorry for the lame post title.  But it has been a while.  

There were so many things that have happened in my absence.  And I regret not sharing them with you. I plan on filling you in on all of it. 

But first, I have waited a couple of weeks to share with you what happened to our front porch. 

It was no accident that I waited to share it.  It concerns one of my favorite people.  They say time heals all wounds.  I don't know about that, but I do know that time has now made this story funny. Which it should be. It should be a funny story that we all can get a giggle out of.  

And so it begins:

I was stopping home on the way to get a TB test, when I what to my wondering eyes would appear:

But my wall crashed in, and not my reindeer. (i'm so, so sorry for that.  I couldn't help myself.)

Our wall had been crashed into, and there was no one around on the street.  No one.  The street was empty. As I'm changing, (side note: always wear clean clothes when going to the doctors.) I called the Hacker on speaker phone asking him if he hit our wall this morning.

"Well, I don't think I did."

"What?!?  You would KNOW if you hit the wall."

I ended up texting him a picture.  As I'm pulling out of the driveway, he calls tell me he definately did not do it and we need to file a police report.  We would also need to call our insurance to let them know. 

Fast forward to the nurse taking my blood pressure.

Nurse: "is something wrong?  Are stressed about something?"

"What? How did you kn...yes, yes I am."

Apparently the broken wall had raised my blood pressure.  I wasn't thrilled that my body was so effected.  The nurse had me wait twenty minutes to retake, and yes it went back to normal. 

While waiting for my excruciating shot, I'm such a baby, I get a phone call from the Hacker.  

"Hey, I was thinking, since the doctor's office is across the street, do you want me to go and file a report?"

"Not unless you want to turn in your father."

My dad had stopped by, not 10 minutes before I got home, and backed up into our wall.

He felt so bad, he got sick to his stomach.  So daddy dearest went home, and since I usually don't get home for another hour or so, he thought he would call and let me know before we got home. He wasn't planning on being the suspect of a hit and run. 

Knowing that it was my dad gave me comfort that it was some crazy neighbor or stranger. However my poor dad was so stressed about the whole thing, he immediately called some one to come and fix it.  

You can't even tell it was broken:

The one thing I was bummed about was my poor creeping fig that had worked for a year to cover our wall.  

It needed to be trimmed down to the bare bones.  Thankfully creeping figs are resilient.  It's nice to be back sharing not only the blessings but also the blunders of the yellow bungalow.  I'm be back, sooner than later.

glad to be back, 

Kristin