Our Patio progress: Columns make-over and a couple of bandits caught snooping

Last time we left the down stairs patio make over most of it was done except the trim around the columns. Here is what it looked like waaaaay back in March. Remember?



The columns had been painted and they were all good to go. Next was time to re-do the trim around the bottoms.



This time the trim was made out of red wood instead of fir and now that the sprinklers have been moved away, the trim should hold up much longer as well.





The inner trim is on. Looks funny, right?





And the outer trim makes everything look grounded.



Everything got caulked with and ready for paint.



And then primed. Then during those days this happened: One evening after the time change, we had a couple of visitors. They are sort of familiar faces, but we had not seen them in about a year. So I hurried and got my new zoom lens that I got for Christmas. And got these pictures.



We call them "the bandits". Bandit 1 and 2. We don't interact with them and you shouldn't because they can be quite viscous, but from a distance they are fascinating. They were there for all of five minutes - then they were gone again.

Oh yes. Back to the trim. Here is the patio before. I don't know if you can tell how bad the trim looked.



This is the before and after the power wash. I think you can see the trim was in bad shape.



Here is the new trim painted. I love how it turned out. As you can see the trim is a bit taller now. Love the new look.

Here is our progress.
1. Power wash the deck and patio done
2. Plane and cut new Cedar wood hand rail for the top of the guard rail on the deck. done here
3. Stain the new Cedar wood hand rail and install it. done in above orange link.
4. Paint guard rail and columns. Here and in above orange link.
5. Add flashing, plywood and rubber membrane - change of plans here. I will talk about that when I show you upstairs next.
6. Move the sprinklers away from the columns and extend the concrete patio pathway - done
7. Make a flower bed with rocks and box wood and drip lines - done in above orange link.
8. Replace the trim around the feet of columns. done!
9. Painting the deck floor upstairs - in progress.
10. Hang lights on ceiling of patio.
11. Decorate.

Downstairs there is still some touch up needed on the ceiling of the deck. We just got new outdoor dining chairs to replace our old ones which were our 12 year old indoor wicker dining chairs that were moved outside when we got the Henriksdal dining chairs about 5 years ago. And of course they did not hold up to the weather very well, so it was overdue that we got new ones. You know, before anyone fell through the seats and landed on the ground. I can't wait to show you what I got.

Are you working on any outdoor projects? How is it coming together? Do you have any exciting wild life in your back yard?

Next: Garden (de) light at night - LED and solar