Sherri Piper - Week 2

This past weekend we worked as a family to finally finish the patio. A slab of concrete that had grass growing through cracks, and didn't look like an inviting space to lounge on during a warm sunny day or cool evening. As a family we pressure washed, filled in those cracks with concrete filler, and repainted it a beautiful shade of beach sand, which matches my outside patio furniture. We wanted to have sun sails on our patio to shade our patio from the intense florida sun. We went to Walmart and just happen to find these huge wine barrels that would work perfectly to set the polls for our shade. We cut the barrels in half, filled them with concrete, put the polls in. We had watched multiple you-tube videos on how to install these little sunshades, so we felt like we had the situation under control. Except, we didn't. It looked much easier on the videos than it was putting it into action. After some arguments, tears, and a few different drill holes we managed to finally get these sun sails to look somewhat decent. They don't look perfect, but they will keep the sun off of us for now. The big test of their stability is when we get one of those fabulous Florida storms. With everything repaired and set up, we were able to put our patio furniture on our patio and use it like it was supposed to be used, and not just stacked in a corner of my living room. 

This outside space was so important to our family. When we had lost our prior house we had a very nice outside space. We had an amazing lanai that overlooked a pool with a waterfall, and our homemade beach with a hammock that we enjoyed so very much for family gatherings and tons of fun. It was a sad moment in our lives selling that home, and now we are living in a totally different environment here. We now rent our home from our son, and he is supportive of the little changes we are making to make this home feel more like our home again.