A New Red Roof!

Maybe I should call my place "The Red Roof Inn"! My new roof was put in yesterday, it's Owen's Corning (the Pink Panther company) Terra Cotta. Cats went through the roof when they heard all the noise!


The old roof, kind of a yucky brownish tan.






The new red terra cotta roof!






Makes the front door really pop! And blends in with the rest of the house.


Also got my porch swing up, surrounded by a few choice pots.


Fritz and Smokey lounging on the back porch, checking things out.


The practically dead rose bush is in bloom. Summer is definitely here!


Until next time,
Jawa Jaka, at the Red Roof Inn

The cat's meow!

So, after five weeks of intensive labor on the front patio, I decided to tackle this short project. Took about five hours. I've had some self-adhesive laminate tiles just thrown on the ground under the litter boxes. A box of thirty tiles cost me $5 at Goodwill, one of my great finds. Without peeling the backing off, the tiles have just been sitting on the floor gathering dust and litter under and in between them. Tired of picking up the tiles to sweep, I thought it was about time to lay them on the floor under the stairwell correctly. It's not a perfect job but does look nicer (and no more picking up tiles to sweep!).

First, you need this product for bare concrete floors to make the adhesive on the tiles stick better. Apply this product liberally after cleaning and scrubbing the concrete first.

Lay out the tiles on a grid after the primer is dried. The milky white substance is the primer, and I had to stop for 30 minutes at this point to let the rest dry.

Close up shot of the tile. Colors are pretty accurate here: dark tan/camel with strands of mocha, light grey, and a hint of forest green and burgundy.

Litter boxes all in a row on their new tile floor.

And directly under the stairs is the rest of the cat supplies, along with boxes of empty CD holders and video tapes (just for storage).

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka, just finishing another project on my day off.

Phase 2 The Patio is Finished!

After five weeks of hard labor (and a couple months before that of planning), I now have a front patio I can be proud of. Tomorrow I'll put together the porch swing. By Friday I'll be sipping lemonade on my new porch. Awe, summertime is finally here....

Tools of the trade: a prong to clean out the leaves and tamp the polymer sand between the stones, a trowel to shovel small amounts of sand between the stones, a good clean stiff brush to wipe off excess sand, and the polymer sand itself. You'll also need a mist sprayer on a garden hose to wet the sand as per instructions on the bucket (follow instructions carefully!).

The brand of polymeric sand I used. It's not mortar but some kind of binding material mixed with very fine sand to make a pseudo mortar. It seems very strong so far (no stones moving yet).

Close up view of the polymer sand in between.

The finished patio, still wet from misting the polymer sand.

View from the front door.

I even dug in a flagstone shelf for my first potted plant (verbenas). Red, white, and blue all the way.

Of course, it's not really finished until kitty tested and approved. OK, Smokey definitely likes it, brick pavers aren't moving, so now it's finished!

And where was Fritz? Stalking a squirrel, of course!

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

enjoying a warm Colorado summer day on her new front porch!