Dreaming of summer patios in January and February

So I have been down for the count since Friday of last week.  My rear molar was found to be cracked back in October therefore an old filling was taken out and redone in hopes that that would last.  It didn't.  It hasn't felt right since then and I knew at some point it was likely I would need a root canal and crown.  On Wednesday it started hurting.  I called the dentist and made an appointment for this coming Friday (they are quite booked).  Two days later the side of my face puffed out, obviously, I had a tooth infection.  In Canada, you don't pay for Dr appointments but do for Dental ones.  Since my dentist was closed anyway on Saturday I waited for 2 hours at a walk-in medical clinic (my family Dr is also closed weekends) and got penicillin and Tylenol 3 with codeine to try and get the infection under control for the appointment.  And it went downhill from there.  I had a ton of pain and so took Tylenol 3.  That made me ill.  So by Sunday, I was not taking any pain meds, just the penicillin.  I was so nauseous that I barely ate anything this weekend and lost 2.5 lbs.  Apparently, the penicillin made me ill too.  Not an allergy, just a really bad side effect.  Yesterday morning I went to my own family Dr and got a new prescription for an antibiotic that I have used in the past with no bad results.  I have less pain as the infection is going away and some of the swelling too.  Hopefully, by Friday's appointment, it will be fully under control.   I got absolutely nothing done on the weekend - thank goodness we were already well prepared for hubby's business trip that he left on today.  I managed all of 800 steps on Sunday according to my fitbit.  I am so glad today I actually feel quite a bit better.

Throughout all of this, we have been arranging our new patio installation which will happen mid-March.  We are installing a much larger professionally installed patio.  Here is the colour of the stone we picked out:

Although the picture below is of a different colour it is the pattern we have chosen - herringbone.  I hope it turns out good - the siding on our house is brown and our new patio umbrella is a dark red. 

This was a dream of ours - devised poolside in Mexico last January after a couple of cocktails.  At that time we were thinking of selling our house and trying to find a home with a similar style of patio.  Now we are permanently staying here (until one of us can't live here any longer and needs to go into care, yes, a super looooooooong time) so we are investing in our happiness with an outside beautiful patio.  We can't expand our house but we can change the back yard!  Plus, we are still leaving a good amount of grass back there so Buddy will be happy too.  

And what did we do in dismal rainy January you ask?  We bought a bunch of patio furniture which was 50% off (because who buys in January) that is currently in a warehouse waiting to be delivered as soon as our patio is done.  No, this is not cheap but WAY WAY cheaper than moving!!!  Plus, since we intend to stay here forever we have a long time to enjoy it.  I have vetoed any further renovations though after this - for a long time.  I am tired of them, really just would like to enjoy our house instead of always changing and renovating - not much left to do anyway.  We do still have to finish painting the inside, only a couple of walls left, but that is not stressing me out.  

Could we do this patio ourselves?  Perhaps, but we don't have the skillset, or time with us both working fulltime in the business.  Painting is easy.  This kind of thing is not.  Especially when you get into detailed brickwork.  They have to remove grass and some shrubs by hand (no excavator can get in there), level it off to prepare it for the brick, lay the brick and then we are getting a clear coat over our existing small concrete patio area nd the new brick to tie it all together.  

And what else did we buy?  A fire table!  This makes sitting in the back yard drinking wine even nicer and later in the year as gives off warmth.  One of our neighbors has one and we loved it.  We can also eat on it as the middle fire part has a grate you can cover the stone with.  

We can't wait for Spring - I foresee many hours of wine drinking/reading in our back yard in the future.