Patio Makeover Smiles

Summer brings so many things to smile about. As you know I love being out in the Patios and around the pool. It is fun to have friends over to b-b-q and swim.

Our trees and plants have matured making the patio areas look green and refreshing.  However, we moved into our home 32 years ago.  John built the patio and all the walls not long after we moved in. Needless to say things are getting yucky  a bit worse for the wear.

For example our old natural gas b-b-q broke. Though the years John has replaced many of it’s parts….. but at last it died to cook no more…. and because it is so old, we could not buy the parts to fix it.

When John build this patio kitchen years ago, we just went out to Bar-B-Q’s Galore and picked out a b-b-q. He built the cabinet around that b-b-q. 

Well  guess what????? They don’t make that size b-b-q anymore….. nope…. it is no where to be found unless you want to pay $1,500 for it. 

  Yes you read that right….$1,500!!!!  We looked everywhere to no avail.  We couldn’t remodel the cabinet and make it bigger because they don’t make tile to match it anymore.   I was so sad. I love to b-b-q. We could buy another b-b-q but it would not be natural gas and I thought it would look stupid dumb to have sitting out by our old broken b-b-q. We couldn’t remove the old b-b-q and leave a hole in the cabinet.  That did not make me smile.

This is where the smiles come in….

Our friend Don was throwing away his old b-b-q.  My hubby took apart Don’s b-b-q.

He welded together the part we needed and drilled new holes to match our gas jets.  John cleverly made Don’s square parts fit into our round holes.

It may not be the prettiest b-b-q around but it is working just great.

Yeah for Grampy John.  He saved the day!!!  Smile…. Smile

 

With the b-b-q fixed and ready to go I started looking around at the rest of the patio.

Sadly I realized that most of our old white furniture was looking pretty bad.  The tables were rusted. The chairs were stained.  I did not want to get new chairs with pads because I’ve been there and done that before. With our warm, sunny weather, the pads wear out quickly and look crappy  awful. They are very expensive to replace….I didn’t want to do that anymore… but I couldn’t find any white chairs to match the ones we had… so….

 

…We bought the brown chairs and then I painted our old white tables brown to match. I think they turned out good…. smile… smile

We also got this little bistro set and a couple of lounge chairs. I love them. I’m Smiling

I painted the edge of our old white eating table brown to match the new brown chairs (not pictured) that go around it…. smile… I may get the energy to buy more paint and paint the rest of the table brown…. but for now the brown edge at least ties in with the new chairs.

We also bought a new patio table.  John had quite a job putting it  and the six chairs all together. Having the new table and a handy hubby makes me smile.

Of course the thing that makes me smile the most is having family and friends come over to enjoy them with us.

So blog friends…. come on over.  The Staffy Spa is refreshed and ready for you. We will fire up the old barbie….throw on some burgers….. and make you fresh lemonade from our orchard.  We’ll have a great visit and….

We can take a dip in the pool to cool off.   I would love to see you.

That would bring me the biggest smile of all.

Have a great week.

Hugs to all, Grammy L

 

July 4th Staffy Style

I have been so sick since the 5th of July that I could hardly hold my head up. I had a sore throat that hurt from ear to ear. My head and body felt like a drummer lost his drum set and was pounding on me instead.  It was wicked…. but I am better at last. My throat is just barely tender now and except for the cough that lingers, I am pretty much well.   Hurrah!!!

On top of being miserably sick, it has been really hot in our area. Many days have been over 100. It has not been a good two weeks for me…..but… thankfully I was well for the holiday and I had a great time with our family.  It was the first time David’s family has ever been with us for the 4th so it was really special.  Here is what we did.

I told you in my 4th of July post that we started out our day at our church patriotic service and pancake breakfast. It was a nice way to begin the day.

If I had more stamina I would have liked to attend the 4th of July parade that Ernie’s band was marching in.  EJ was playing with the high school band again this year even though he is only 12. That boy is a good little musician. I wasn’t up to attending the parade this time but maybe I will be next year.

While the family attended the parade, I was at home decorating the patios, making food and getting the buffet table ready.

After the parade, Ernie set up his smoker and got the chicken to cooking. It took several hours to smoke the chicken. The delicious aroma was teasing us all afternoon.

We filled in the time swimming, sunning, visiting …..and….

….Just relaxing around the pool.

There was also some recital time…. all 4 of these children are beginning to play the piano really well…. and some goof around time.

Cute cousins had so much fun together.

We were all glad when the chicken was smoked and we could eat dinner.

We had an “all American” meal of chicken, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, baked beans, salad , garlic bread and chips and dip.  Yum Yum

The meal was great…..

but …..the company was eve n better!

We finished off the meal with home made ice cream and strawberry short cake.

Then we hurried off to the baseball stadium to watch the fireworks show.

Because of the fire risk, we are not allowed to have our own fireworks at home anymore. (We miss the good old days)… so we have to go to professional fire work shows.

The Angels were out of town so we couldn’t see a game this year but we enjoyed the program , the music and the firework show.

I couldn’t get really good pictures of the fireworks….. but….

They were impressive…. I especially love the way they are timed with the patriotic music.

I love the 4th of July. My heart is full of gratitude for our country and thankfulness for the freedoms we enjoy. I am thankful for our founding fathers and the constitution they established for us.

  I am praying that the congress and the leaders of our country will make sure that we adhere to the principles laid forth in our constitution. I am hoping that our country will elect Gov. Romney to be our next president to get us away from the socialistic state that we are becoming under Pres. Obama.

I am praying for our country. I hope that you are too.

Have a great week.   Hugs, Grammy Lura