Final back-patio projects

There were still a few things to get done before Open House (which was just this past weekend).  I finally finished painting the ceiling.  Phew! What a chore! And I'm so glad I didn't have to go out and buy another can of paint.  I was down to a tiny bit at the very end!  And we were able to recycle all the old florescent lights as well.  And OMG, look at the mess I have to declutter!

And then finally, I had to put up the last fan/light combo on the back patio.  I think I'm just a glutton for punishment - looking for projects to do.  Ha ha!

Almost done!  I thought I'd try and see if the connection worked as it did look rather complicated on paper.  As I turned on the power, nothing happened. And then somehow I decided to check if the light worked and after plugging that in - phew!  It worked! So I guess it needed to complete the circuit for the fan to actually work.

Tada!!! I was going to move the lights or string them differently, but nah... no time for that now!

After getting the rock wall fixed up, we decided to hire the same contractors to demolish part of the she-shed.  It was basically just this half wall that was used as a bar:

The boys tried to take a shot at this wall with the sledge hammer but they couldn't even lift it.  Ha ha!

Wall is gone but there's a hole where the wall used to be and where the red brick (stove) starts.  Oh no!!!  

After a quick discussion, we ended up using some pieces of wood that was from our old fence.  Hopefully it's up to code since the stove is not too far away from this end.  And after retouching the wall and also painting the "fence" white, and more decluttering... ta da!!

Oh, and don't even get me started on the stove.  The grill grates were soooooo nasty. YUCK!!

I wasn't sure where to even wash it but thankfully I had some leftover grill/grease spray cleaner and we had that massive outdoor table cover that was ripped and needed to be thrown out anyway.  Totally disgusting!

And then, the boys helped wash and sweep the back patio:

We did have one casualty.  Oops! Bob actually knocked off my baby turtle with the broom:

Looking so much better!

And funny enough, the boys have been playing Ping Pong these past few days.  It was one of our first things that we had on this back patio but after a few weeks, no one really played it so it was just basically taking up a lot of space.  I'm glad they are playing with it again. Graham said it's because they are better at it now. Ha ha!

The house in IL that we plan on moving into is a lot larger than this one.  Hopefully we won't be tempted to get any more stuff to fill it.  I keep repeating what my realtor/friend tells me, "Less is more, less is more". LOL!!!