sandstorms and patios

Because I grew up in Pennsylvania, I've had my fair share of weather. But one thing I never experienced until moving to Saudi is a good old sand storm. I sort of experienced this when I took a family trip to the beach when I was 16. Hurricane Felix stopped by during our stay there. But that was nothing like the sand storms we get here. If you wanna see some good footage just enter "sand storm in Riyadh" on youtube and you'll see some amazing sights (we had a really nasty one back in 2008). If you want to know what things look like afterwards, well, here ya go...

That is our patio. We had just purchased and brought home that table two nights before. The day before this storm, I sat right there, at that very table, in incredibly sunny, warm weather, doing my school work, while little guy played. We were outside ALL DAY and it was AWESOME. That night things began to change and we heard that a big sand storm was on it's way. By 11pm it was announced that school would be cancelled the next day. In the morning, I went down and the view above is what I saw. I wrote a special message on the table, just for you. ;)

It's a good thing hubby had the idea of putting our new plants inside. We bought those the day before the storm.

So how do you clean up after a sand storm? With a hose of course. These are the times when having hired help is a huge plus. My driver and housekeeper went to work outside and I got to dusting and cleaning on the inside. Little guy was busy playing and hubby had to go to work (lucky them...lol). After a few hours of cleaning we got things back to normal. And since I recently posted about wanting to set up a patio, and because I actually stuck to the plan (and annoyed the heck out of my hubby in doing so), I must share what we got set up so far.

So, welcome to our patio...

This is our front door.

Here's a view of the whole patio...

And here's another view...

I found a table similar to the one I found online (that I posted about a few days ago). We've been going out and sitting there daily. We eat, drink coffee (little guy has his chocolate milk), I do my school work, and we can even use our laptops. ;)

I got A LOT of flower plants. I was so excited when I found out that they were only 1 riyal (about 27 cents) a piece. I never bought flower plants before, ever (unless you count 1800flowers gifts). So, I'm not sure if this is a good rate, but we bought two of each kind, plus a rose plant. I think the guys thought I was a crazy American lady...hahaha. I tried to be all creative and arrange the flowers in the planters that I bought. Then I lined up about nine individual plants on the window sill. My plans are to find some cute little pots for them. I'm horrible with plants. But I will try my best (and ask my Mom for LOTS of advice...lol).

Remember how little guy said he wanted grass? Well, I found him some, and it's just what he wanted, "a little piece"...lol. They apparently sell this by the meter, but I wanted just this little bit of it. So, I insisted on buying the sample piece. If I'm not mistaken, I think this was a freebie from the plant guys. I'm planning to find some sort of planter for it.

I eventually want to get a piece of artificial grass to place at the bottom section of the steps, where I'll move little guy's play house to. I don't think you can see in the photos but the floor of that section has some unattractive spots from where they needed to dig after some water pipe problems.

I would also like a bench or maybe some more chairs. Little guy has his play cars and his sandbox that we bring out as well. When not in use, we store them inside. I also need some of those candles to keep the pesky mosquitos away, and maybe some patio lighting. But so far it's exactly what I wanted to start out with. We've been using it everyday and really enjoying it. And we didn't even break the bank. Good deal all around. :)