Cottage Beach House: patio

Saturday, June 11, 2011

In honor of the Patio Deck and Porch party a Mojito for you

2 posts in one day...Whooo, hoo, I must of had too much sun down here in Florida today.
Ummmnnn but the beach was grand and the water was so warm. Now I am showered and dressed and waiting for the rest of em to get it together, we're heading to dinner and casino in Tampa. :))
so I thought in honor of the patio party that Donna is having at funky junk interiors, I just might try another post while I wittle away the half hour.

Let me take you back to the New Jersey Cottage for a minute. I understand the weather there today is totally crappy, so I'm glad I am here on the gulf coast of Fl.
But back in jersey a couple weeks ago hubbo was helping me bring furniture outside, and designed challenged that he is... this is how he left it...in a clump.

To me this seems like wasted energy... to just throw it down.. when you could set it right , right away....
but no 2 birds tweet the same... do they?

This is how I wanted it.

Reminding of my momma's words .. "If you want something done right, do it yourself"
Which I went right ahead and did.

And then of course had my signature mojito. A girl has to have rewards.

and here is the recipe for ya'll...

This back porch is one of my favorite places to just sit with a cocktail and maybe have a nap

after a hot day on the beach, and a cool shower just one step away..

This was a mess before..You can see how I fixed that here.

While my little palm rustles in the breeze.

And sometimes, if it is a quiet enough day you can hear the waves of the ocean roaring.
Because it lies just beyond that prominade in back.

I used to see it from my deck until they put that concrete on top of those rocks. :((
Or I can grab a sliver of it.. if I stand on a chair... like the pic below

But not to worry. Lets go upstairs for a much better view..to the sunroom. :))

And how lucky am I that it is only 100 steps to the beach?!

One of these days I will dig out some old pictures of when we had this sunroom built, and post em up.
It had previously been a second story deck off the bedroom that was so darn hot we never used it. Plus the railings were a bit wobbly so I don't think it was super safe!
Now of course it is the most favorite room in our little shore cottage.

And another great spot for napping. Or for reading a good book..

..... It's a wonder I get anything done!

I will be posting at Savvy Southern Style-Summer Decks and Porches
for the ~~block~~
blog party***

Partying with donna at Funky Junk Interiors

Monday, May 30, 2011

Redesigning a Patio area

There is a young kid in the neighborhood who comes around and helps us with our yard work which seems to be becoming an overwhelming amount to do during April and May. We call him "Magic Mike"

because he has an abundance of energy and the desire to carry out a plan until something looks "magical".

Last week, Mike and I were both tired of the maintenance involved in keeping this one area looking clean. Stuff gets lodged in between the goose egg rock and it all needs to be pulled apart and cleaned and put back together... hello?!!!? Work much?

Years ago this strip had yucca plants that got too big to have by the pool, because as you walked past them, they stick you) so we moved the yuccas down in a garden and replaced their old spot with the rocks.

You can see the debris and weeds we were left with each spring.

Weeding, blowing out the fallen leaves and winter mess that accumulates each year, has become harder as time wore on and it was time for an updated, lower maintanence plan..

So hubbo and Magic went to Home Depot, and came back with these choices..

...which I wasn't too fond of ...for this spot.

Hub and I agreed we both liked the grey patio stone, we already had, that was interspersed, but the goose rock had to go.

We just could not agree as to what we were going to combine those grey slabs of patio block with. :(

He liked the small dark grey. I wasn't nuts about any of them. And lets face it... this kid is not a brick layer, so....the small stuff would be way too many cuts...And the other stuff was rubber... I tend to like more natural looking stuff and have a lot of slate and flagstone around my yard....so off to Home Depot I went, to figure what we could do for the least amount of cuts. And to accent the slate look of my old patio blocks which no one around me is selling anymore! There must be some option my design challenged hub overlooked.

I found a smaller patio block 12 x 12 that went pretty well with my original