My Latest Obsession: Bringing The Indoors Out

Do you ever have a moment where you are sitting with your honey, day-dreaming out loud about all the wonderful and exciting projects you would like to take on at your house and then...BAM! Day-dreaming turns into reality faster that you can say, "Ummm....What just happened?"

Well, yeah...that is precisely what happened to me and that is why I haven't been blogging...or really doing much of anything else (other than working on our latest house project) lately!

But ooohhh how I love a good project. And, this one has been no exception!

It all started a little something like this...we bought our first home about a year and a half ago. When we purchased it we knew it would definitely need some renovations to get it looking like the home we had dreamed of. And we were more than okay with that, especially given its amazing location and overall good "bones".

First came the (almost) complete kitchen overhaul. The only existing items that stayed in the kitchen were the cabinets. When we were house hunting I knew that if nothing else I HAD to find a house that had good woodwork throughout. Since kitchen and bathroom cabinets can be super pricey I wanted to find a place that already had cabinets I loved so we wouldn't need to replace them.

Here is what our kitchen looked like when we bought the house....(sort of anyway...the light above the island was added by us, but I wasn't fast enough to get a picture before that went in.)

We really liked the layout of the kitchen itself, so there was no need to move anything around. After the new floor tiles, granite counter tops, travertine backsplash, stainless steel appliances, new paint and texture on the walls, new light fixtures, window treatments and of course, accessories...this is what our kitchen looks like now...

After the kitchen project was completed we moved on to some smaller projects including the paint and texture we continued into the living room (which connects to the open kitchen above), the front yard landscaping, and the half bath downstairs which also got new paint and texture on the walls, new tile and new fixtures.

After those projects we were finished last year, we were done for awhile. Home projects, while enjoyable, are also exhausting and time consuming so we decided to take a break from the renovations and just enjoy our home. That, however, didn't last too long before we were both itching for a new project!

That brings me to our current undertaking...the backyard. When were bought our home we knew that at some point, if nothing else, we were definitely going to need a new fence. But, we also dreamed of creating an outdoor living space where we could entertain, relax and enjoy ourselves for several hours at a time. The backyard that came with the house was not suitable for any of those things. In fact, up until now we rarely spent any time out there at all. It was ugly and depressing, definitely not a place you would go to unwind after a long day!

After spending the weekend at my mom and step-dad's house and enjoying their lovely outdoor living space for a few days, we came home inspired and ready to make some major changes in our own backyard! We started with the one thing we knew we needed to upgrade first, the fence. You can kind of see the old fence behind this chest of drawers...it was in desperate need of an upgrade!

Next we looked at a way to enhance and expand what was going to be our "outdoor living room". The concrete patio that came with the house was about 10 feet by 16 feet and it was not covered. And, if you know anything about the summers in Oklahoma, then you will immediately understand why not having a covered patio really considerably limited the amount of time we were able to spend in the backyard from the months of May through August.

So, the wheels started turning. We first considered building an uncovered deck and calling it good. But, then went back to the issue of the Oklahoma summer heat and decided we really would need some kind of cover (even if it wasn't a permanent structure) to be able to enjoy the backyard at all.

That's when we decided that we would be well served to expand the current concrete patio and cover it. Originally, we were going to expand the patio so it would be 14 feet by 20 feet. Here was our original plan...

Then, the night before the concrete was going to be poured, we decided to go ahead and expand the patio another 11 feet so it would be 14 feet by 31 feet. I know 11 extra feet may seem like a random number, but by expanding it 11 additional feet it would come flush with the wall of windows in our living room. They aren't depicted in the sketch above, but they are on the right side of the chimney.

After getting the green light from our neighborhood association to built the covered patio, we went to town and had the "bones" of our future outdoor living room constructed. Then things really started to get exciting, because it was time to start putting together a plan for decorating this outdoor room! :)

I came up with this inspiration board to help us visualize how all of the elements we were considering using in the space would look once they were put together. Here is what I came up with....

We are almost completely finished with this project now. We will have to wait another couple of weeks to cut the concrete into large diamond "tiles" to ensure we don't compromise its strength by cutting into it too early. Once the tiles are cut we are planning to stain the concrete something very similar to the reddish-brown color shown near the grill above. AND we have to wait for the pesky rain to stop so we can have a two-day window to get a new roof put on the entire house...new patio addition included!

BUT, since we are very close to having the entire project finished, I thought I would share some before and after pictures today....

Since completing our patio project, we have been spending every single free second outside enjoying our backyard! It has definitely been well worth all the hard work and time we have put into it, and we are looking forward to making even more improvements out there as the months go on. Who knows...with all the work we have put into making this house a perfect home for us, we may just decide to eventually put in a pool and stay awhile! ;)