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!

Front Patio Update

Well, I'm almost finished. Just need to clean out the leaves between the stones and pour in the paver set. I think I have one stone to level, but all the other stones feel pretty good underfoot. There is a slight slope downward from the house wall for rain runoff. I also put some heavy but pretty small boulders/rocks around the sewer access pipe and in front of the stepping stones to hold the sand better. I even dug in a flagstone "shelf" for my terra cotta pot that I'll fill with pretty flowers. I'll have my porch swing up by Friday, just in time for the beautiful summer evenings (sans wind, I hope).









Alot of hard work this past month, but my Smokey and I are close to enjoying our new front porch soon (she loves to sit on my lap on the front stoop and watch the neighbors' kids on their bikes).

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (impatiently waiting for my porch swing)

The Front Patio

I've been doing a little project on my own the last couple weeks. Working on it a couple hours each day, I've gotten quite a bit done. I should be finished by next week. Mind you, this is not easy work, but with free flagstone from a friend, very cheap sand ($1.88 per bag for 25 bags of 50lb play/mortar sand), and beautiful pavers than form a curve ($1.90 per paver for 30 pavers, got five free), the back-breaking do-it-yourself work is worth it. Here's where I'm at so far.

What it looked like before. Just a bunch of rocks.

Diggin out the rocks, making a shape, and laying the first layer of pavers. Had to dig in that layer so it would be even. Leveler is an absolute essential tool for this project.

Front view to show the curve of the pavers. Not bad, huh?

The Sandbox, or a very large neighborhood kitty litter box (lots of kitty footprints all over it!). 25 bags of Quicrete Play Sand gave me about a 2" layer, perfect for the flagstone.

Lots of raking to spread it out.

Closeup of sand.

The Jigsaw Puzzle. After spending a couple hours breaking my back watering and tamping down the sand, I grabbed a few pieces of flagstone to see how it would all fit together. Bigger pieces are toward the wall.

Closeup of piece fitting. Much harder than piecing together my Imperial Officer tunic!

I did find a couple pieces that had a curve to it that fit against the pavers nicely.

Next is continuing with the jigsaw, leveling the sand, installing the pieces, and mortar the joints with Paver Set (sand with polymer fill to make airtight joints). And more tamping to do. Kittys won't have a chance when I'm done.

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

The Walkway

I've been a busy bee on the house lately now that spring is here. A few months ago the sewer pipe clogged up so bad that the sewer company had to dig up my pipe, bend it straight, reinforce it, and cover it all back up. Of course, it got covered with bare dirt. Aurora didn't like that (no bare dirt in front lawns). Ridiculous law since they won't let us water our lawns, and the city made me dig up the sewer pipe ($8000 I feel the city owes me!). So, I left it bare for awhile, daring them to give me a ticket. Then last month I felt the need to do yard work, in a blizzard, just because it was April, and snowing...

So, this is the photo log of the flagstone Walkway, from the street to kinda near my front door. Mind you, I have a sloping yard. Laying flagstone to be even on uneven ground is pretty tricky, but I did it!

Digging in the edging.

Laying the flagstone (the same stuff I'll use on the patio).

Flagstone and edging dug in and level steps (well, one more edging to go, but it is in).

Putting in the rubber mulch (it's been through two heavy wind/sand storms and two blizzards, and still hasn't blown away).

Rubber mulch looks like the real thing! Also, lined the last couple feet at the street with small boulders that were laying around in the side yard.

Finished! Looking from street to house. Big red boulder on left side is now sitting next to new patio (next blog).

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (now a full-fledged 501st member, DZ 5905)

OK, the mailbox is painted a Rustoleum hammered bronze (which really looks tan brown). After spending a couple days scraping off the previous owners' names (yes plural, and why do people use those awful stick-on letters?), I primed it Friday morning, then that afternoon I sprayed the first coat on. Ten minutes later the clouds opened up and gave birth to HUGE droplets. The thunderstorm didn't last, but I was too afraid to go outside and look at my mailbox. Then next morning I got the nerve to go look at it. The big raindrops really added a really cool effect, creating large blotches of a really hammered look! So, I sprayed another coat being careful not to ruin the big raindrop splotches. It takes about 48 hours to completely dry, so I'm lucky the mailman won't come back until Tuesday (Monday is a holiday, Labor Day).

In the meantime, I created this template for the mailbox paint job. It's going to take some time but I can do it. The dragon is kinda my symbol, since my family heritage goes back to ancient Welsh times. I decided not to do a Welsh dragon, instead opting for something like this gold and bronze dragon. I copied the picture from an artist's website who sells paper crafts of some really awesome dragons, might have to order one. Of course that means I'll have to come up with my own bronze dragon, but I like this style. As an artist, you just don't copy someone else's art work, I'm just using his picture as an inspiration and idea. (I like it so much, I might buy it from him anyway! wink).

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka

lovingly laboring on my mailbox on Labor Day!

The Party

Once again, no camera. And the people who came to my housewarming party didn't bring theirs either. Oh, well. We all had a good time anyway. The day started early for me, about 7:00am. I always seem to forget something at the store for my parties, and this time it was the BBQ briquets. So, off to the store early in the morning, adding chips and guacamole to the list. Once home I cleaned (and I mean cleaned) the grills and smoker. What a chore! I finally felt that summer was here. I got the ribs smoking, turned on the hot tub, and proceeded to my room for some major clean up. I decided to heck with the office, messy as it was. I even through all the empty tore-down cardboard boxes throughout the house into the sewing room for recycling later.

The first to arrive was JDon, at 10:30am, to deliver a dozen tamales. At the last minute he sprung the news that he wasn't staying but instead went to Morrison for some Woodstock show with a bunch of groups he follows religously. He such a groupie! I guess his comment "I wouldn't miss your party for anything in the world" didn't mean much. Without going into detail I'm totally MAD AT him. It will take a long time to earn his trust again. (some friend he is)

Krys came early about 1:30pm to help me set up (not much to set up so we basically just chatted). Sometime that afternoon she tried out my stair handrail. Her verdict, it's really sturdy! I spent about five hours the previous weekend painting the existing ucky blue rail a nice soft flat brown (I had a can of spray paint, so I just used it) and installing seven new bronze brackets (color went well with the brown). Originally it had four useless brass ones, so I made sure I had enough. It worked! If Krys can use it, anybody can.

The rest of the gang showed up around 4:00pm. Fifteen in all, including little Sarah. Now having "Sharkbait" here was worth all the hardwork and planning. She was a little fussy but quite content to be here. The best gift of all: her dad, Scott helping me put my green oversized TV-viewing chair downstairs. Now my back doesn't hurt watching TV. Later the other guys brought in my dad's oversized 1970's couch into the house, now sitting under the front window in the dining room (table had to be pushed against the opposite wall to make room). Eventually, like in October when I have a long vacation, I'll be putting the couch in the garage after I clean out the garage. So, my two favorite pieces of furniture finally got into place for now. Way to go guys! And thanks again...

It's said that the kitchen is the gathering place. I was hoping to gather outside (Drew was the only one who got into the hot tub), but everyone ended up in the kitchen instead. It's official, I can fit 14 adults and 1 little one in my kitchen area, cramped but comfortable. After feasting on smoked ribs, BBQ hot dogs, kielbasa sausage, macaroni salad, chips/salsa/guacamole, and rum drinks, a few of us decided to stay and play the new Battlestar Gallactica game. It's interesting but fun. Krys and I were the secret Cylons. It's fun being the bad guy reaping havoc on the other players trying to figure out who the secret Cylons were. HEEHEE! The Cylons won by the last card drawn, close call. I wouldn't mind playing it again.

The only disruption to the day was Smokey disappearing. The guys left the back door open when they brought the couch in, and I seriously thought she had gotten out. 20 minutes later we found her under the guest room bed. Boy is she shy around crowds! Fritz however just enjoyed the show, watching us from a distance under the dining table. I think he had more fun than anybody else! LOL

Rafe and Bella gave me a bottle of extra dry champaigne, which we never opened. I promised that next year, on my one year anniversary, we'll have a bigger blast with a bigger crowed, and open the champaigne then. Everyone agreed. Same time next year! Everyone is welcome to come!!

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka
who keeps looking at that bottle of champaigne and wondering why we have to wait a year! LOL