We have a new patio!

It’s been finished for about a week now. It took about eight weeks from first digging to completely finished, which is longer than we really wanted to be without a backyard, but now that it’s done…I no longer care. It’s so gorgeous! It’s exactly what we wanted and I’m really, really happy with it. As soon as it was all done I actually went out there and lay down on it and just basked in its glory.

Now if only we could find a way to eliminate all the other grass in our yard, we’d be on to something!

Here’s a picture of the back of our house now (I wish I had a before shot, but oh well).

The patio extends over to the side of the house and then wraps around to form a walkway to our side door. It turns out that the bend around the corner creates a perfect little space for our wading pool. Here’s a picture of that part.

Here’s a closeup of the side stairs (which are the same as the back stairs, only a little smaller). The stairs were by far the most expensive part of this project — as they were very labour intensive — but they are our favourite part.

Now we have the rest of the summer to work on some finishing touches. On the side of the house where the walkway is, we want to rip out all the grass (or, more accurately, weeds) on the house side, under the air conditioner and other pipes and stuff, and replace it with river rock. On the fence side of the walkway, we’d like to tear out the grass as well, and put in a flower garden. That’s more work, though, so we’re going to need some serious motivational caffeine before starting that job.

The pathway only extends as far as the gate, and then there’s about 10 more feet to get to the driveway, so I plan to put in some stepping stones to complete the walkway. I’m going to use kits to make the stepping stones as an art project with the kids, and have them stamp their hands and feet in them. Cuuuuuute.

Yesterday was Canada Day here, and although some parts of the country use the closest Monday or Friday as the holiday, in order to make a long weekend out of it, in Ottawa you always get July 1st itself as your holiday. Sir Monkeypants had the day off and everything was closed so we decided to just have a day of fun instead of trying to do any work around the house. We took the kids to the Canada Day In Kanata party, where there was free face painting and jumpy castles and a midway and dog shows and highland dancing (LOVE IT, I did it as a kid and got all nostalgic). It was a beautiful day and we had a great time although it was extremely crowded, so we wound up spending at least half the time waiting in line for stuff. Still it was nice to be out and about and it’s amazing how many people you can run into that you know when moving through a crowd of thousands. It’s a small world!

Anyway, after the party we came home and got out our wading pool and our Dora sprinkler, and the boys next door came over and everyone had a big water fight with squirt guns while Little Miss Sunshine slept. Eventually our kids got cold so we got them dressed, and about five minutes later Captain Jelly Belly forgot he didn’t have his bathing suit on anymore and jumped into the pool. It was really hilarious and we all had a good laugh and the Captain loved it, he just loves playing the clown and being everyone’s entertainment.

Also hilarious, this conversation Sir Monkeypants had with the kids during water play time:

Sir Monkeypants: I’m hearing a lot of talk of butts and poop. I don’t want to hear any more of that.
Gal Smiley: What about PENISES? Can we talk about PENISES?
Sir Monkeypants: No.

I’m sure that added a special moment to all our neighbours’ Canada Day parties!

Afterwards we fired up the BBQ for the first time this year (we had to disconnect it during the building of the patio) and had a yummy dinner. Eaten outside. On the patio. It was a perfect evening, sunny and warm with a gentle breeze and no bugs at all. Plus, yum.

Altogether a fantastic day spent in our new backyard. I can’t wait to get out there again today.