Patio progress

Not long after we moved into our house in November of 2010, I looked at the space between the house and the garage and said, "We should put in a patio." I did not have any specific style or material in mind, so James took my basic idea and came up with a plan: a stone floor with a cedar pergola overhead. We started digging out the area last summer and James even put up some of the framing for the pergola, and we put down gravel and stone dust before the snow fell.

James finished the pergola in May - gorgeous! - and then we outlined the space using bricks reclaimed from the partially deconstructed chimney in the attic. We finally picked out the stone that we wanted and it was delivered on Saturday morning.

We started laying the stone yesterday. The space is not a regular shape, there are the support posts on the pergola to work around and, of course, there is a learning curve, so it was slow go as we cut and fit the stone. After about four hours, we had four rows in place:

Putting down stone is much harder than it looks! But we are liking the results so far:

Here is how the patio looks right now, from the office window upstairs:

We eat dinner out there almost every evening; the sun is on the other side of the garage by the time we sit down to eat so we are in shade, and there is usually a breeze to keep us comfortable. We also enjoy sitting out by the fire pit on cool evenings. So although we have much work ahead to finish the patio floor, we are already enjoying the new "room".

New grill in the neighborhood

We welcomed a new grill into the family over the weekend:

Isn't she a beauty? As you might know from past blog posts and Facebook updates, we like to grill. Well, James likes to grill, and Aidan and I like to eat what James prepares on the grill. After many years of faithful service and two moves, our old grill was falling apart and not working so well. As near as we can determine, we owned the old grill for thirteen years, maybe even fourteen, so we definitely made a good investment when we purchased it. But it was time to bid it fond adieu and see it start a new life with someone else:

Yesterday was the inaugrill dinner on the new Weber:

Those are ribeye steaks, corn on the cob (in foil), pierogies and a twice baked potato for Aidan, who does not yet appreciate the goodness of pierogies. Although almost all of the credit goes to the grillmaster, the new grill made a successful debut. And a good meal was had by all!