SINCE TWO DOGS AXED...

My buddy Two Dogs made mention that he liked the picture of my "tomato watching patio," and asked for some better pictures of the stones. Since I have never been one to just comply with a simple request, I decided to chronicle the events leading up to my lovely side patio.

Our house was built in 1948. It is a nice old house...pretty wood floors, large bedrooms, etc. But it had been a rent house for many years before we bought it, and was in bad repair. We knew that there was a patio on the side, because you could see it from the front yard.

But truthfully, it was completely unusable...even inaccessible. From the back yard you could barely get to it due to several fig trees that had spread out (as fig trees are wont to do). So, about 7 or 8 years ago, we decided to reclaim it as a patio.

After digging out the fig trees to gain access, this is what we find.

Ain't it just beautiful? You will notice that it is now protected by a stretch of mud. You'll also notice that the AC condensing unit was placed on the patio...an AC unit on a stinkin' patio?

You will also see a 4' chain link fence on the outside of the old brick wall. This was a problem always. Our old black lab Midnight (the smartest, most territorial canine that ever lived) would jump up on that brick wall, and scare the living beejeebers out of anyone that came close to the fence. I mean, the meter readers were scared spitless...and with good reason. She could easily clear that fence...she never did though...like I said, territorial.

Midnight must have been an anti-religious racist. Because she would come unglued if ANY BLACK PERSON walked down the street. And the only people she hated worse than black folks were Jehovah's Witnesses.

And I'll tell ya', a black Jehovah's Witness did not stand a chance. But I digress.

So, the first thing I did was put some stepping stones down to stay out of the mud...looking better already.

But everything was in really bad shape.


See the stones Two Dogs?


You may be able to tell from this next shot that about a quarter of the stones were just completely missing. The neighbor told us that a bunch of kids that lived there years back thought it was great fun to go out, jerk the stones out, and smash 'em to pieces. Lovely children, I'm sure.

So, what I did was mix cement, and trowel it in where the stones were missing, trying to form it to look like stone. It worked out okay...if I did it again, I would have added a little coloring...but I ain't doing it again.

The next thing I did was remove the chain link fence, and put in a pressure treated wood fence around the patio. I'm gonna do that around the rest of the yard one of these days. Maybe. Probably not.

And, I brought in sod...oh yeah, this must have been the year that The Mrs. finally got her full vegetable garden, because that's where I got the sod.



An interesting feature of this patio is the rocked-in planters. They are interesting. But the coolest thing is that little bricked-in bench...see it? It is a piece of petrified wood that is almost completely flat across the top.


Then I built a pretty dealie...don't know what you'd call it, but it's pretty, and plants can sit on the top & vines run up the lattice. Plus it filled up the old patio entrance.




Oooooohhhhhhh, The Mrs. was happy! More places to plant flowers. Have I mentioned that she has two green thumbs?

Then I took the rest of the cement, and poured a pad on the back of the house for the AC unit. I paid a buddy in the AC business a hundred bucks to move it, and relocated the power myself...and installed a 120v outdoor plug.

Bleached all the bricks, etc.



Everything's looking pretty...

Those purple Million Bells were just gorgeous. And the ferns are too. They are old. Believe it or not, they were used in our wedding in 1979, and given to us by the lady The Mrs. In-law borrowed 'em from. They're still in use now...tough ferns.



Job complete. So, now you know for certain that it is impossible for me to comply with a simple request.