Summer Grilling

Several years back, we installed a deck, outdoor kitchen and a pergola in the backyard, near the pool. The Arizona sun was very unkind to the stain on the grill surround, and the top was beginning to warp and rot. Note to self, never use wood as the top to the outdoor kitchen counters. After looking at several pictures and watching a few tutorials, I felt confidant enough to replace the wood with tile. And off I went, shopping. After looking at a few options, I decided on Tavolo tiles - so pretty and colorful - and drove to a local mercado with one of the boys and we picked out the tiles. 

When we had the pool built, we carefully planned the pool around both of the trees in our backyard, hoping that neither would be damaged in the construction. Both trees suffered root shock from the digging of the pool, and although our Shamel Ash tree flourished this year, our Brazilian Pepper tree withered away to nothing. We decided to remove the tree and create a dining space in its place. On a scale of 1 to 10 in difficulty, this was about a 3 - the roots had obviously been damaged so extensively, the tree was pretty easy to remove. 

After removing the tree, we put more pavers down and set up our dining set. If you look closely, you can see our makeshift attempt at trying to level out the table. Since our yard slopes down out to the back of the property, we knew we would have to reset the pavers soon. In both of these pictures, you can see the condition of the wood of the outdoor kitchen. One trip to Home Depot and I had this solved.

After restaining and sealing the wood, I moved on to removing the rotting counters and replacing with cement backboard. I watched a few more tutorials and quickly got the hang of tiling. The grouting was the messiest part of the project, but overall, it was fairly simple. We are ready for some summer parties!