Finally finished project 18 The Courtyard Renovation

I am a very lucky lady to have both a home on the Atlantic Coast and a home 1/2 mile from the Gulf of Mexico in Southwest Florida. I do love the sea and always desired to be near it.

The water in this part of the Gulf is warm and clear, and a beautiful shade of aqua, very often like the Carribbean. I swam in it today for at least an hour. I love the variety here. Some days the water is as calm and serene as a sea of glass. Other days there is a current and  waves. I love waves. I also love it calm and clear. Variety, ahhh the spice of life.

So onto the finished project of creating a  courtyard in the front entrance of my home here by the beautiful Gulf of Mexico.

 Finally complete

It used to be a garden entrance full of stone. Dark Grey stone on the sides, with plants. A pathway of pink stone, and diamond shaped stepping stones was how we entered. Everyone grumbled, when pulling their suitcases in, believe me. A real nut test!

 Here it is Before.

And  ouch, ooch, yikes, when i ran out there in bare feet! There were always small rogue pebbles on those stepping stones!!!
So I'll cut to the chase and give ya some other before and after shots! Thanks for tuning in!

The fountain area, now.

The Fountain Area Before:

And when we removed the stone, you can see how bad the concrete was in this shot.... yikes it took a lot of work to fix this concrete with patching and cleaning and a coat of stain before doing the brick stamping pattern.

The Concrete under the stone

And after I stamped it.

And here is the Window Wall now.

Inspired by the clay and white room below

More inspiration photos and us cleaning out the stone are HERE in my previous post

I love these shutters! i found them at Sarasota Architechtural salvage.

You can see the floor pretty good in this pic. I used a sponge and clay color cement stain to achieve this look.

I stenciled some of the bricks for a Mexican tile effect. I used a mixture of grey stain and aqua paint for the stencil, the stain was way too thin for stenciling, so i needed to thicken it up for doing the stencil, once the brick design was dry.

The boring window wall before 

So I am a happy camper now, no more stones under my feet, when I walk out my door I see this pretty courtyard .

A complete do it yourself project and very satisfying.

 A big shout out to Johanna, without who's help, I could never have accomplished removing all that stone or moving those huge pots through Home Depot!

Adios Amigos!

Now I can head back to Jersey for Easter!
Happy Easter.

Linking up to these parties:
The Mommy Club
Good Life Wendesday
Wow us Wendesday
Vintage Inspiration Friday
Feathered Nest Friday