FRONT PATIO UPDATE

Remember the front patio we put in last year to control a water problem we had? Here's what it looks like now. It's on the right side of our entryway.

Here's the front door. I'm fixin' to get out the Fall decorations and spiff it up a little soon. My goal was to decorate for Fall on August 1st... which means I'm a little behind schedule as usual!

We're still planning on re-doing the front walkway when it gets to the top of our Fixin' To Do List. For now we're stuck with these cement blocks, but in the future I picture tile inside the entry and a curvy flagstone walkway leading up to the house and around the sides.

Now that it's the end of Summer and cooling down a little (or will be soon), we thought we'd put some vincas in to put a little color in the front yard.

We're going to re-do the front to get rid of a lot of the lawn and to install drip irrigation in the beds so, for now, we're just adding some color. The yard and borders have irrigation (sprinklers), but it misses some areas and needs to be re-done.

Wild Bill tends his orange and key lime trees daily, so he's designated as flower bed water-er too! My job is to watch, which I do well...

Here's a picture of the front without the patio. This was when we closed on the house during Winter 2011. There's still a little snow on the roof.

And here's another shot of the patio now. Slowly we're reducing the area of yard that has to be mowed.

We've put a patio in the front of our last two houses because they both faced East and West. The front patios get the morning sun and afternoon shade, while the back patios bake in the late afternoon sun.  Living in Texas takes a little planning to keep the sun at bay!

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon. We'll be hanging out in the shade waiting for you.