The Bois Bungalow

We completed the patio a couple months ago, and have already hosted a couple of events outside. We are really looking forward to the warmer weather next year to be able to truly enjoy it. We added the pergola from Costco and a new barbecue set up from Lowe's. The set up came with a sink, cooler, barbecue, fridge, and tons of storage. I see many bbqs with friends and family in our future! We also added lighting to the pergola and several strands attached to the house. We are loving the extra light and ambiance the string lights add to the patio.  The retaining wall in the back adds extra seating and holds back the land.  We also bought a patio swing for the front porch that has been nice for watching the dogs play in the front yard.  We also recently purchased our fourth house (3rd rental property) and are working on getting it all fixed up! We now have: -Our 1912 Craftsman bungalow -1928 Craftsman duplex (rented out) -1948 mid centu...

We have been talking about renovating our backyard patio for years, and this year we finally pulled the trigger and bought the materials! We hired an excavation company to tear up the old concrete patio, level the land, and to level our newer rental and put in a sprinkler system.  It has almost been a month long project and it's still not completely finished.  The first day that the excavation company was here, they were moving some material and their skid steer fell through our old concrete patio! There was a sink hole (that we were not aware of) that was big enough to swallow their machinery. It was insane to walk out and see the machine in the ground.  They were able to get their machinery out and it only slowed things down by an hour.  They were able to get the land leveled out. We probably doubled the size of our patio. They put down a layer of gravel. We had the first load of pavers delivered pre...