Mr. Steffawn....Fabulous!

Our latest project was a patio for some friends. They had a pergola put up in their back yard, and wanted a new patio to go under it. It is a beautiful thing, made of rough cedar with lots of embellishment. It was fun to do their patio. It has been a long time since anyone was this excited about their new concrete.

We met Randy and Annette through my brother Stephen. They are all members of a local Harley owners group. They go everywhere together, and have been really good friends for a long time.

Stephen was the designer for this project. Well, not really. He was the designated fidget. He had to make sure that everything was just so....so fidgety. I swear, he was more worried than Randy and Annette. He asked more questions, double checked more patterns and colors, and in general had more anxiety than any of the rest of us put together. He instant messaged and called me so much the week before the job that I seriously considered having him kidnapped and taken away until the job was finished. Of course, he wanted to make sure that R&A were happy with their new patio. He fretted so much that we renamed him Mr. Steffawn. He is not happy about this, but the rest of us laugh. He acted so much the typical decorator (fuss, fuss, fuss!)that we could not resist. He threatens us with bodily harm... funny guy. Uh Mr. Steffawn? This isn't our first pour...really :)

Anyhow, back to the patio. The cover is actually half roofed and half pergola. Under the roofed part, they wanted a simple pattern that was nice and flat for the patio furniture. Under the pergola section, they wanted the forest floor pattern. We did a ripple slate skin under the roof. This is a seamless pattern that you can either score in a design, or leave in large blocks. They opted for a two by two foot pattern, scored on the diagonal. This always makes an elegant look. Bill profiled the house with a nice six inch border to make it look finished. On the pergola end, we used the same slate pattern, along with the tropical leaves, and maple leaves that are native here. I also pulled a couple of leaves off of the trees in their yard and used those too. I really like this pattern. It is pretty labor intensive - lots of crawling on hands and knees, but the result is worth it. We used a lot of colors to hand tint this time. There were 6 different colors, along with the antiquing. I also combined some colors to mimic the leaves changing colors in fall. It was pretty interesting. Hopefully, by next summer we will have a new leaf pattern that is strictly native plants. There are a lot of very interesting leaves here, and it will make a nice pattern for hand coloring. I just have to preserve some leaves until I have time to make the new pattern...there is never enough time.

It was very nice working for R&A. They were so excited. After we got the patio poured, we told them that it would have to cure for a week before we could clean, color, and seal it. Of course, since daylight savings time has come it gets dark before they get home from work. On the day we poured the patio, they were out with flashlights trying to see what it looked like! The day we cleaned and sealed it, they again took the flashlights out and looked it over. Apparently it was like a bunch of little kids at Christmas! I think that is great. I guess I am so jaded that it's nice to see someone excited about their slab :) A called us, and was so excited that I just had to laugh. We met them for dinner the next day, and they were all grins. Fun!

Here are pictures. I sooo need a nicer camera. I had a difficult time getting good shots of the texture, and leaves, but you can get an idea. I thought I had all the pics here, but alas some are at home. I will add before and during shots tonight.