HELP! What to do about the curtains and the wind...

Unfortunately I cannot do anything about the wind.  I have three thoughts right now.  Red outdoor curtains, white outdoor curtains, or grey coolaroo fabric.  The coolaroo would go on top of the pergola but under the cedar or in and out of the cedar and hang at the front.  It would look like this only the front would be a little longer.

The wind will still move them like crazy but they won't hurt anything or anyone.  This is a big departure from the curtains so I'm still thinking about it.  I bought one roll and tried a modified version of this in the wind today.  Does anyone know what I can put on the end so it looks finished?  What about the sides, how do they finish it?   

Should I try the curtains one more time?  Any thoughts on how I can tie them down? HELP!

The pool is done...

I wanted the pool to be timeless and modern.  I was on a budget so I bought all the tile myself  in a bigger city and brought it to the Island.  Since the tile is darker and considering budget I did not want to have any of the fancy colored plaster so I chose white.  The white does not  fight with the tile which is the statement in the pool.

 I had one sheer descent waterfall put in, 2 seats at the deeper end, a step in the tanning ledge and full steps from the tanning ledge into the pool.

This meant more people could sit in the pool.  My splurge was the 2 swim jets.  You turn them on and swim against them instead of swimming laps.  By putting in the tanning ledge I eliminated a good part of the length of the pool for exercise swimming, so swim jets. :-)  The cost of the traditional swim jet and how it juts out from the pool side was unappealing so I researched and came up with this instead.  I think the savings was at least $3k.  It gets very hot here so the pool is great for those days when you just want to walk out your door and get wet or have the convenience of being at home.

Finished pool.

Outdoor curtains and the wind...

This is version 3 and 4 of the curtains.  Version 3 was coolaroo triangle sun shades for 2 days.  They were sort of yellow/gold and the heavy material just did not look right and they were far too large.

So now I am back to Ikea curtains but this time they are much lighter and not as long. They are still white. I need something to hand them with that will never rust and can sustain in the wind.  It was going to be 45 mph winds one day so the day before I put up the curtains.  I went to HD and bought all the plastic chain link they had in white.  I used stainless steel eye and hooks to hold them up.  Since it's impossible to get the chain straight with curtains I had to put just one at each end.

You may notice the movement due to the wind.

So I tied them.

The plastic chain link stood up to the wind but I spent a lot of time pulling the curtains back down  and across.  Then on one trip we saw one curtain shredded by our Agave, 2 of them down and others twisted around the chain link.  That was Dec 2013 so down they all came.

Concrete, to stain or not to stain...

The pool is almost done and the pergolas are done.  I've been thinking of what color to stain the concrete.  I refuse to have that stuff called Sundeck around the pool, it awful.  I opted for travertine and stained concrete.  Before the pool I intended to do grey for a cool modern look like the inside of the house.  I had not settled on an exact grey.  When I decided to use copper mosaic tile in the pool that changed everything.  I went to the stain store and decided on light brown.  It should be just a little darker than the travertine.  The stain looked dark in the sprayer tank but what do I know, it's my first time doing this.  I start in the area under the hot tub just in case.  OMG it's dark.  Luckily this stain can be lightened with 50% water.  I start staining again and while it's not what I wanted it sort of matches the copper and does look good.  It looks Tuscan which is definitely not what I wanted but it's working.

Notice no curtains on the pergola's.

 

The staining was easy and I had fun creating the random patterns that gives it that sort of marble look.  You can see how much darker it is compared to the travertine but it looks good with the tile.  We bought a shiny "wet look" sealer and that was not fun to do.  First it took 2 of us so that meant my husband and I.  We had a 5 gal can and it was suppose to take all of it.  We managed to do almost all of it without any drama.  Then came the realization we had not done it right and a footprint.  My husbands footprint is there forever.  We only used 1/4 of the 5 gal can so needless to say it will need to be done again this year.  I think hiring that out is wise as we still have to do the rest of the side and the circular driveway in front.  That will be the travertine color.  It finally occurred to me to look at the stain can and I had been given brown instead of light brown.  You can see the difference here.

Light brown is the second from the bottom on the left side.  Brown  is second from the bottom on the right side.  The color we ended up with is 50% of the brown.

Pergola anyone....

As the pool is coming along I once again start thinking of the problem with the sun in the afternoon.  We decide to concrete in each end of the pool.  At one end we decide on a very modern pergola.

 

 We do pressure treated lumber for the frame and cedar for the top.  The frame will be painted white once it's weathered and the cedar will be left natural.

The only thing better than 1 pergola is 2 pergola's.  We decide to have a much longer pergola built the same length of our covered patio.

The pool is almost done.

I have the answer....

We needed a pool, that would fill in the yard and well it's permanent so no more worrying what to do.  We decided this in Jan 2013, I designed the pool on paper and we got started right away. 

The good about the sand is the pool form was done in one afternoon.  We had sand piled up everywhere.  This is the area behind the outdoor shower.

 I thought I wanted a beach entry pool but I also wanted a tanning ledge.  The tanning edge won.

The concrete is complete.

Notice there are no curtains.  We almost have a pool but still no solution to the sun.

Curtains and more curtains.

Eventually the heavy, long curtains from Ikea were dirty and falling apart.  Who decided that having outdoor curtains dragging over concrete was a good idea.

Those curtains had been put up just like indoor curtains would so this time I decided to use stainless steel hooks and eyes further out.  This time I bought sun shade triangles, 100% polyester.  The plan was to have them go across the uncovered patio.  That did not work either thanks to mother nature.  So I hung them like curtains.  That worked for a little while but they had metal thinks on the end and I had to cut them off to save the lights.  They would blow and end up wrapped around the column lights which made me worry about fire.  They had to go.

By now I have also discovered I am close to the Ocean.  The Laguna Madre is on the other side and with the high winds salt is always in the air.  This means everything rusts quickly.

By now what to do with the backyard is driving me crazy.  I like things to be complete.

I changed out all the furniture but kept the round table.  I moved it to different spots in the yard but it ended up on the concrete to the side and it's still there today.

What to do, what to do!