Night Life...

Shots of the backyard lit up at night:








We have taken down all the white Christmas lights we used for the party, but will be wiring the backyard for accent and pathway lighting soon. We will keep all the tiki torches (of course!) and probably add some more over time.

Solair Chairs... Very Cool Patio Chairs!

Designer: Fabiano and Panzini
Manufacturer: IPL, St.-Damien, QC

This indoor/outdoor chair had a long production run, from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. With it's classic styling and increased demand Industries Émile Lanchance Ltée in Canada has reissued these fantastic chairs.

These chairs are awesome... and NO ONE sells them on the West Coast until NOW! If you want some contact me and I'll send you the information. They are available in 6 colors: white, aqua, orange, yellow, bright pink and beige.

This is it!!!

Where can I get this umbrella? This is exactly what I was looking for last fall. http://greshamrummerfun.blogspot.com/2008/10/summer-dreams.html




Check out this place! It is simply amazing.
Now I feel like crap. Noooooo! I'm not jealous... take it back.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/slideshow/view/15057368/9

Frankenstein Deck... Bringing it back to life.

We have lots 'o deck... maybe 1200+ sq. ft. I know!

Question: how many suitcases of money did it take to build?
Answer: about 40K.
Bottom line: we could never afford to replace it!
Action plan: attempt to bring this sorry looking deck back to life... somehow. (fingers crossed)

The deck had been very neglected the last few years and we worried that it may be beyond saving. With the help of some 30 Seconds Outdoor Cleaner and a pressure washer we began the Frankenstein deck experiment. This 30 Seconds stuff is amazing! It takes about 1 gallon/100 sq. ft. We bought two 5-gallon containers to start, followed the instructions on the label and jumped in.

Outcome: we are pleasantly surprised at the vibrant, nearly new look of the deck.




What a difference! The pressure washers chewed up a little of the surface. To keep our feet as splinter-free as possible we'll rent a floor sander to smooth it down before we seal the wood. The main back decks are done. Still need to clean the sides, the deck overlooking the green space (this one is pretty bad), the path up to the pool house and the pool house deck. We will also use the same cleaning process on the aggregate patios, walkways and driveway then seal with a wet-look concrete seal. Should be fabulous when all done... good thing I love the pressure washer!

Progress on the pool

Max is an animal at removing the old tile. Some came off with just a tap tap... others worked best with a screwdriver as a pry-tool... but it was most fun to just whack at it with a hammer and watch the pieces fly.
IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE: Ceramic shards cut skin quite nicely. (We all had our battle wounds from flying tile shrapnel. Wear gloves and safety goggles... also, keep a stack of Band-Aids handy.)
The old tile is gone and all the water has been removed, but it's not ready for new tile yet. The old mud and grout need to be removed!
Note from Steve:
And don't worry about that water... if you look at the large version of this pic you'll see six holes in the wall and I had just taken out one of the plugs. Two are for the current pump system- one takes dirty water to the filter, another shoots clean water back into the pool. When you plug up the return hole that diverts water to the upper pool area and the waterfall. I have NO idea what the other 4 holes are for. I've tried every combination of open/close with them and my best guess is that they're from the old pump system and the pervious owner just left the holes.


We tried scraping, wire brushing and pressure washing... none were successful at removing the old cement and grout. After a quick google search we found that another DIY pool tile person has used a 4.5" grinder with a masonry bit... and YES! It did the trick. It was messy and took Steve one day to grind down the tile base.

We also had to smooth out the lagoon. The plaster surface was installed over the old tiles. Steve cut into the plaster, removed the tile chucks and rounded over the thick part of the plaster. Not perfect, but will work great until it's time to resurface the pool. And a smooth, continuous line looks a lot better than before.

With the surface prepped and smooth, Steve applies a skim coat of cement to the border.

First tiles go up! Yup, that is a very blue/green border. I love it and it really will brighten up the pool.

The transition from the pool to the lagoon was tricky. The lagoon doesn't have the aggregate coping at the top. To keep the visual line of the aggregate we decided to add a dark grey mosaic blend to the top. It works really well and eases the transition from pool to lagoon a little better.

We spent hours laying on our stomaches nipping individual tiles to fit the curve of the pool. This is all under water, but I know it would bug me if it wasn't done right. No one will see it, but we know we like it!

The finished lagoon with grey border. Awwwww. We pre-sealed the tile yesterday and will start grouting tonight. We hope to have the pool filled by this weekend. (fingers-crossed!)

Tile Removal Begins

We began removing the tile around the lagoon today. The tiles actually POP off easily... not a good sign, so it's good that we are re-tiling.


The mortar is very crumbly under the tiles. We've found bugs, pine needles and mold under some of the tile, and the surface is very moist... is that normal? I think the only thing holding the tiles up is the grout. The removal looks to be the easy part. The cleaning and prepping will take some time. I'm going in to talk with our pool guy tomorrow to discuss strategy and buy the correct mortar and grout for the project.


Some of the tile actually sits underneath the pool surface and there are a few crack in the pool wall and lagoon bottom, so I will schedule a professional to come out and evaluate the pool surface. This may be a little more than a do-it-yourself project.

That's one green pool! Oh, and it's bigger than I estimated... I have to buy more tile.

Pool Tile Pics

This is going to look so good on our pool... even better than the pics with white grout between the tiles. Can't wait to see a tropical blue pool in the backyard. What a switch from the "nuclear green" it is now! Looks like we will be draining and cleaning it this weekend. Fun. Stay tuned!

Pool Paint

How can you not want to paint your pool with ad graphics like this?

Initial research on pool resurfacing is distressing. Full resurfacing is very cost and time prohibitive. Maybe we could just paint it. Still need to research this more before making a decision, but Rumac Pool Paints seems like a viable option. Sold locally at Rodda Paint and step by step application instructions are a huge plus.

Still don't know cost, but check out the colors!

The Pool

Seems like I've been focusing on tile quite a bit, so sorry if this topic is getting a little boring.

New Project: The Pool
We planned to have the pool ready by Mother's Day, but our pool is a mess. Very, very green. And the weather has not been cooperating. It will actually cost less to drain and refill it than purchase all the chemicals required to clean it. The decision to drain it and start over was simple. Since it will be empty we will give it a good scrubbing, repair the tile and rust-proof the supports for the lava rock waterfall wall. I'm hoping that we can resurface the pool too, but that's still in the maybe column... the previous owner re-did it a few years ago and decided that the black bottom gave it a lagoon feeling. Who wants to swim in a lagoon?... when you can have the cheesy, bright, obnoxious turquoise color of the South Seas. I'm hopeful, but have no idea what the process is for resurfacing the pool bottom. We'll research this in the next couple of days and post our findings.

Step 1: Drain the pool.

Step 2: The blue tile must go.
Plan A: chip off all the country blue tiles around the edge and replace them with this snazzy mosaic from Hakatai. Today I ordered 50 sheets of Sky Blue/Mint Green Blend. It will be here next week.

Plan B: there is no plan B so plan A better work!

Colors in blend
30% sky blue
25% light blue
20% lake blue
15% mint
10% mint ice

Step 3: Clean metal supports and apply rust-proof paint
I know absolutely nothing about this. Steve will post the project details, but I believe it includes wire brushes and spray cans!

Step 4: Repair lava rock waterfall and reroute water.
Steve really wants to create a fabulous water feature in the back corner of the fill pond... possibly a volcano (surprise!) The water pipe carrying water from the pump house will need to be moved about 6-8 feet. Steve assures me that the process if fairly simple... but Rule #1 in home improvement is: nothing is ever simple.

Some of the rocks and masonry work around the waterfall is breaking down. Many rocks need to be re-set. I don't know how to do this either... hmmm. How hard can it be?

Step 5: Fill pool, add chemicals, heat water and enjoy!
Sound pretty simple to me. Time to start shopping for patio furniture!

What am I thinking????

I'm still pining for summer and window shopping for the back patio. Steve found this darling set on Craigslist and I'm just obsessing over it. I NEED IT!!! I think I might have a sickness for patio and pool sets... but this one is really cute.


Let's hope it's still there after Christmas. Then I can seriously consider it... the holidays and bathroom remodel are sucking the life out of my pocketbook. Sigh! Pain!

Summer Dreams

It's not even November and I'm already dreaming of summer. I'm going to be a basket case by March!

Instead of preparing the pool and patio for winter... I've been searching for a very specific patio umbrella that we saw on our recent trip to Disneyland. The umbrella is aluminum or fiberglass petal leaf construction in a multi-color palette. Can't seem to find a resource for them, so if anyone knows where to get them please let me know. It looks kind of like this:


They may be vintage and out of production (welcome to my world.) We'd love a backyard full of high quality vintage patio furniture, but unfortunately pieces are rare and usually in poor shape or outrageously expensive! This stuff will be used a lot and we need it to hold up to use, abuse and the lovely Pacific NW weather. With that in mind, I'm looking at NEW.

In the search process I have found some interesting options for our patio and pool.


Umbrella Option 1: Fiberglass umbrella with star burst


Belson Outdoor offers this in several stock colors. Not too exciting. But wait! We may have a winner with STM Industries that offers the same fiberglass umbrella with over 200 custom colors!!!!!


Umbrella Option 2: Aluminum top umbrella


Park N Pool offers a few options for aluminum top umbrellas. I love this color. (See previous post on color scheme) Don't know if this is what we want in the backyard... too much of a good thing is never good. Luckily they offer quite a few color options:


Furniture Options: Panama and Pacific Island Weave Collections

This site also offers patio furniture. We have approx. 1200 sq. ft. of deck and patio surrounding the pool, so we need some furniture to break up the expanse.

Park N Pool also offers some chair designs that are kinda fun. (This is the closest thing I've found to that "resort" feel we are trying to accomplish in the backyard design.)

These nifty patio chairs go great with the aluminum umbrella! The site offers a design generator to custom design the color weave on these chairs. Sweet! Plus the chairs and chaise are all stackable (perfect for our weather.)

Time to wake up and get back to work!