Last weekend we made some major progress on the patio!  As you may recall, Kyle's folks helped us get the patio are prepped and I complied lots of inspiration (here).  Between the baby, the rain and the trips, it took us a bit to find the time to get to work.  But last weekend we busted out the reggaetón and the Pacifico and we made the patio!  We still have all the decorating work to do but here's a look at what we've done so far...

Kyle leveling and measuring.

While Kyle got the foundation ready, I stained all the pavers.

Gwyneth (and Sophie) watching from the sidelines.

We poured in the sand and leveled it.

Once the sand was perfectly level we started placing all the pavers.  This was fast and fun because we could really see the end in sight!  

We celebrated the completed patio with a mini barbecue!  I love the way it turned out.  We can't wait to dress it up a bit and complete the oasis.  Hopefully we can get the decorating done in the next couple of weeks.  We also started on our kitchen remodel.  September is gonna be crazy.  We are redoing our whole kitchen and tearing up the carpet to put in laminate flooring!  We spent five hours at Ikea yesterday and ordered the kitchen.  I'll post a kitchen remodel post soon.  It's so much fun working hard to make our house even more enjoyable.  

Right now, this is what our patio/backyard looks like.

It's hard to maintain the grass and it's not a very fun place to hang out and relax.  Along the side of the house is a bark pathway which I'd like to change to gravel.  We are very limited in funds right now so we are attempting to create a backyard oasis on a budget.  The goal is to have a low-maintenence patio area that is ideal for reading, working and playing during the day and relaxing, eating and sipping wine in the evening.

We borrowed this book...

 ...from our friends and Kyle and his parents spent Fourth of July weekend prepping the patio space.

While they were working outside, I was inside taking care of the baby and searching for inspiration. I found this image online via Sunset Magazine and found that it came with great instructions for staining inexpensive concrete pavers!  Perfect.

We decided to do a simple, classic black and white checkered pattern.  We ordered the pavers and got the paint and supplies.  We are now waiting on the pavers to arrive.  

I love these simple lights.  You get a country lantern/lightning bug effect and it's really inexpensive!

I also want to build a small staging area against the back of the house for setting food, wine and board games when we have friends over for dinner.  We will use inexpensive wood to do it... I couldn't find any photos to show what I mean so you'll just have to wait for the real deal.  I also have a few other aesthetic tricks up my sleeve that will really help transform this patio into a little oasis.

I will have the grand reveal for you in a couple of weeks!

Source: gravel pathway, checkered patio, kitchen floor, jar lights