It's only fair that I insert a photo of Bob hard at work on our terrace so that you don't mistakenly think that I did all the work. So here's Bob, mixing up the final batch of mortar to finish off those decorative seams of quartz rocks. This is, after all, The House That Quartz Built.
This is a nice detail shot, showing how we cleverly united the cement areas to the mixed cement and stone areas. It's a perfect balance between playful and practical (much like us!) and it looks good to boot. It was great to be able to say, "We're done!" and take down the construction zone fencing and open the door directly out onto the lovely new terrace...
We celebrated it's completion yesterday, despite a steady rain and less than cooperative weather in general. The last two months have been unrelentingly warm and sunny and conducive to outdoor living on a nice terrace but plan a celebration and you get rain... at least it's good for curing cement!
It's great to finally finish a project that has been on our minds for the last six years. We do spend a huge percentage of our time outside and having a new outdoor room is a treat. I have almost forgotten how awful that rotting deck was.
And if you look really carefully at the back right hand side of the terrace, you'll see the flat cement slab that was already there and to the right of that is a small pile of rocks. This was intentionally put there: it's a new toad house. We have had a toad- or a few toads that all look pretty similar- residing under our rotting deck. We provided a small heap of canted rocks on the dirt at the edge of the terrace- a perfect replacement house for our resident toads. We hope s/he enjoys it!
