July 2013

This summer we often have a smiley face in the center window...

The Patio is Finished

And the patio is complete!

Last weekend...after a month-and-a-half, nearly 10 tons of paver bricks were in place on top of 9 tons of compacted gravel for structure, in addition to a couple tons of sand to help with leveling. Our friend Brian came to help the day we rented the wet saw to cut bricks for the edges of the patio. 

The project came to a dramatic and climactic culmination as a steady rain began to fall while we spread the polymeric (water-activated) sand, used to fill paces between paver bricks- the final step. In a frenzy we swept wet sand in the rain until we were soaked through...and the patio was finished, whether we were ready or not!

Brady is a happy boy to have the full run of his yard again, and we've been focusing efforts now on building brick walls for the raised beds.

This weekend, we hosted an outside lunch and officially broke in the new patio. Jose and Tim helped Loren and me dig the hole for our (very heavy) ornamental cherry tree for the back raised bed, before managing to roll it into the hole.

The Patio...Part II

Back in June, before the gravel went down, we dug, dug, and dug...then laid down landscape fabric and laid an electrical conduit under the patio, for when we run electricity out to the garage.  Loren's sister, Julie, was an all-start patio builder!

For awhile, we were laying the first layers of gravel for the patio, then compacting it with the 200  pound compactor we rented.

Then...we started laying paver bricks...

...while Brady supervised...

Laying gravel involved several sweaty, dirt-filled weekends. More photos to come soon of the now completed patio!