New front steps (Spring Break/March)

This project has been in the making for a very long time.  We've been wanting to fix our front stoop for the longest time now.  I remember picking up some sample tiles probably over a year ago now. And then we had recently looked at some more tiles and feel that we have finally found the right one for our house!

"Casablanca" 5"x5"

By the way, it seems that no one understands me when I say "stoop".  Is that a British word?

Definition of stoop (Entry 3 of 3)

: a porch, platform, entrance stairway, or small veranda at a house door

So I am correct!  But seems like it's not the very first definition - which is I suppose, more commonly the act of bending the body forward, or lowering of oneself, or perhaps even the descent of a bird especially on its prey.

Anyway,... onward with the project!  But first, I had Graham help me with the measurements, as we needed to know how many tiles to order:

I hope we got this right!  Ha ha!

I'm so glad the contractors were able to do this during Spring Break as they had to jackhammer the old "stoop".  And here's what they look like:

Oh and by the way, here are the before photos:

The arrows are where I had attempted to patch and the circle is where the previous contractor had fixed up when we first moved in.  Yikes!

I wish I had one of these cement turny-thingys.  That would come in so handy when I have to fix the concrete in the backyard!

Looking better already!

Half way through!  We decided to go with the brick border.  Doing the matchy-matchy thing with the brick flower bed:

Hmm.... after the contractors left, here I am pondering about how they are going to fit the 5"x5" tile in between the bricks.  Looks like it's not going to happen!

When the guys came back the next day, they then told me that they had done so because otherwise, the steps would be too steep.  Why didn't they tell me in the first place?!  I could have bought a different tile perhaps, or maybe not even use the brick.  Anyway... too late now.  We will have to work around it.  And I'm glad I stepped out to check the progress a few times as I had my mind set on it looking on way, and the boss had it looking another way! 

Tada!!! What do you think?

Some of the tiles are a bit crooked, but perhaps that's the charm in it all?

Here's the view from the front.  I think it still turned out ok even with them having to trim the tile a little:

The brick looks a bit messy right now as they will come back in a week or so to acid wash it. In the meantime, I was trying to figure out why our green bin and trash bin in the driveway was so heavy:

I'm guessing they don't quite know the rules for a Green bin as there was lots of dirt and some leftover concrete in it.  And they also threw in some more concrete in the Grey bin which made it so super heavy!  I'm glad they agreed to pick it up the next time they came around.  Hopefully my neighbors didn't think I was dumpster diving in my own trash bins.  Ha ha!

Here's a look of the steps from our driveway.  By the way, we were originally thinking of fixing our driveway but gosh, for at least $10,000??! That's ridiculous!

This house has come a long way from when we first bought it 2.5 years ago:

What a different vibe! I think the dark blue color on the garage door makes a huge difference too. Hmm... maybe we need some window shutters to complete the look??! :-D

Since the concrete on the first very step was uneven with different tones (they used 2 different brands of cement), we had the option to paint it.  So we decided to just have them go ahead with that.  We chose the same color as the trim of the house.  I think it looks pretty good now:

I know I already said "Ta da" before, but this photo deserved another one.  So,... TA DA!!!

The only other comment I have is that they tilted the tile in between each step.  The explanation was to make sure the water moved away from being trapped in between the steps, which I totally get. But I've never seen that done before.  I do see his point though, especially when our awning is not so big either.

Definitely a different look from what it was before.  And I'm just glad it's a lot safer now too as we did extend the first step out just a little bit. We had one person fall off the steps when the security door was open. Oops!

And to finish off the look, I put a hanging planter above the mailbox.  I think it needs a pop of color so I may paint it. Although I was hoping to get one of those purple plants (as I hear Bobby complaining about me spending even more money :-p)

I'm so glad that this project is finally complete!  We've now fixed up the front room with new lightning and now the front stoop is done.  Looks like most of the projects are now just in the backyard.  Phew!!! The joys of homeownership - there's always something going on!  Oh, ps... finally had our gardener fix up the broken sprinkler line in the backyard yesterday. Hope the sprinklers still work as we couldn't find them in the yard last weekend. I keep telling Graham to weed-whack around them but he doesn't! As I had just mentioned, always something going on!