Well, the bids are in, and decisions have been made. The original patio has a skip trowel finish next to the sidewalk with it's brushed finish, and we decided not to go with stamped concrete over the dirt strip because it would look chopped up. Too many concrete styles next to each other. We chose one cohesive look which will make for a huge patio area. We had so many ideas presented to us, it was pretty confusing, but we settled on a landscape company that also does concrete. He will do all the drains and drip systems for the planting area prior to pouring new concrete. The new concrete won't match the old concrete, so it will all be refinished with an acid wash and power wash, all cracks repaired, all painted a uniform light gray, then taped into random stone shapes. It will be sprayed with a beige color top coat with a skip trowel textured look. It will be then stained randomly (with different size spray nozzles) in 3 tones (gray, rust, and black) to simulate the rocks that exist here in this area. The tape will be pulled, revealing the gray concrete undercoat so it looks like concrete between flagstone. It will then be sealed, and if I get my way it will have sparkles (glitter like stuff) tossed in, like the granite boulders on our property display in the sun. I mislead you when I used the word, "broken concrete." It has two cracks in the sidewalk and one on the step to the house. The cracks are smaller than the width of a dime, and easily fixed (per all the contractors). This is California. With our earthquakes, nobody escapes cracks in their concrete.... I'll post photos of the final in a month or so. The price for the new concrete and overlay process is between $6,500 and $7,500 dollars. We are fine with that range. Thanks for all the input! Suzi This post was edited by desertdance on Wed, Feb 26, 14 at 13:20

A few things have happened in the last week. The acid bath is over and they are starting to get the water balanced. It was very dark (inky) with the acid and now it is green but clear so now I am looking forward to seeing the true color of the water. they did the sprinkler system and landscaping starts next week. They started the spray deck today and the deck mosic Texas star. Full of water (16 hours - 15,500 gallons) hot tub spillway First lay of spray deck Texas star on deck - will be stained to match the spillway stones

We're in Vegas and have done a lot of "try outs" at our own home, I made DH put in a separate slab on an unused side of the house for some tests. I wanted to finally put stone around our 16 year old pool, one passed the heat test and just this year it was d/c here, not selling due to bad economy. So after a few cocktails I agree to let him put the new Xcel deck IR (infra red?) over our old Mortex. He also had some Xcel deck coat, same color, that was not the new "IR". After yesterday in 105 full sun, I can say the IR is cooler than regular Xcel deck, and both were cooler than the old Mortex Kool Deck. I am happy with the color, tea and cream, a medium tan. Their website just says the color will determine how hot it gets and I didn't want a dark color. We have been using Xcel deck for about 4 years and haven't had any problems with cracking/peeling, either new pool decks or re-done decks. We now give homeowners the option with the IR upgrade, it is more expensive but looks exactly the same as the standard deck coat they sell. It is acrylic. We do at least 3 steps,bond coat, scratch coat and top coats. Hope this helps, Barb

We are hoping to install almost 2000sq/ft of limestone pavers in s. louisiana. The bids I am getting in are also around $13sq/ft for install only.That is on top of the concrete bed (approx. $5sq/ft) and the paver price. Just finished interior remodel, and paid less than $5sq/ft for tile installation. Don't know what the huge differential in price is between interior installation and outside. We are continuing to get bids in hopes of finding something reasonable. shellip