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Disclaimer:  I wrote most of this post almost 3 months ago...somehow managed to neglect to hit the publish button....


The patio construction is done!  Joel was right, we were in the home stretch.

When I last left off, we were in the gravel compacting stage.  Joel took a day off of work last week to work on the patio because he was planning to be out of town all weekend on the motorcyle trip and wanted to get the next phase good and going.  He started off the day with this mishap:


Split his overalls lifting the 250 lb compactor out of the truck.  He sent me this picture while I was at work.  Did he go inside and change his clothes?  Nope.  Worked ALL DAY in these special air flow optimized drawers.  Back off ladies, hes mine, all mine.

We called up Menards and luckily, for a fee that was totally worth paying, they would deliver the pavers to our house.  We would have spent that much in gas just driving back and forth across town 4 times to get all the pavers.


Joel inquired about having the pavers set on the side of the house to save us some hauling distance and the delivery fella said that they only deliver to the driveway and then produced the paperwork which backed up his claim.


But then, for $5 cash money, the delivery guy said he could set a couple pallets down on the side of the house for us.  Best $5 we spent in this whole project.  I hope that fella bought himself a nice cheeseburger for lunch that day!  Ha!


 

We worked and worked and worked and made really good progress that day.

 



Then it was back to work work instead of home work the next day but when Joel got off, he went right back to laying pavers.  He worked and worked and worked and worked until he got all the pavers laid (except the ones that had to be cut). Also, now you can see where Tyler gets the idea that work boots and shorts is an acceptable look.

 

Then the weekend came and Joels motorcycle trip got cancelled because the weather was supposed to be crappy all weekend.  I encouraged him to take a break from the patio and since it wasnt raining at that time, sent him of on a little local ride for a few hours.

Then when he came home, it was back to work on the yard and patio.  We ended up working the whole weekend - with nearly no interruptions from rain.  Go figure.  At least we made big progress!

We piled up all the left over sand and cleaned off as much of the driveway as possible - this was an important step because our house was full of sand from us walking through it on the driveway and dragging it in on our feet (even with taking our shoes off in the garage, sand was still showing up everywhere).  Tyler was a big help with this step.



Then we installed the edging thats supposed to help keep the pavers from shifting around too much over time.  And then Joel worked his hind end off on spreading dirt and essentially "landscaping" the grassy area all around the pavers as well as spreading dirt in some of the low spots in our yard.  Tyler helped with that too.



Joel put sealer on the pavers and we bought more sand (a different kind this time) to put down in the cracks between pavers and rented that compactor AGAIN to settle that sand.  That thing is LOUD.


Tyler got to ride in the back of Joels truck when he moved it at one point - Tyler thought that was the big time.


And then....last but not least, we ordered our patio furniture!  This super cool table with a fire pit in the middle (with a lazy susan cover for when you dont need a fire burning).  What does a family do when a fire pit is in the back yard?  Uh, have smores.  Yessiree!!

Its feeling a little like the yard barn project, reincarnated, around our house these days.  We have started a "little" backyard renovation project.  And by "we," I mostly mean Joel.

The kids absolutely love to eat outside.  Love it.  Sadly, our little 10x10 backyard patio isnt big enough for the grill and a patio dining set so every time we want to eat outside, we have to drag the card table around back.  Its super annoying.  Plus the card table is in pretty shabby condition and the vinyl on top has been repaired with scotch tape in multiple locations.


So, its either go buy another card table OR dig a 12x25 hole nine inches deep, make several trips to various locations to get rid of the dirt, rent a jackhammer to break up the concrete patio, figure out where to put this busted up concrete and then, four truck loads later, haul it away, haul away two truck loads of the pea gravel that was under the concrete slab, have 9 tons of regular gravel delivered to the driveway, haul the gravel to the back yard, rent a giant compactor to settle the gravel, have 5 tons of sand delivered to the driveway, haul it to the back yard, haul 250 huge pavers to the back yard, painstakingly arrange the pavers in the correct pattern, order some patio furniture from Sams Club and badda bing, badda boom, we can have dinner outside any time we want to.  Needless to say, we opted for the second option.  Slightly more expensive and time consuming than the first but (hopefully) worth it in the long run. 





As you can clearly see, Tyler has been a HUGE help in the project.  He never put pea gravel back on top of dirt that was just cleared out.  He also never put dirt on top of the fresh gravel.  And he definitely never put pea gravel and fresh gravel in the grass where it doesnt belong.  Also, he never tripped over the strings that are marking a level surface and skinned his knees such that he was in need of a new bandaid every 5 minutes.  See what I mean?  Big help!!!


I love how hes wearing boots and shorts - cause Daddy was wearing boots so he needs to wear boots.  Also, I love how his boots are on the wrong feet. 

 
 

Oh and did I mention that we also decided to dig out two feet on either side of our drive way so that we can put pavers down there as well?  Since we both park our vehicles in the driveway, theres not a lot of room to get in the car without walking in the grass.  This is SUPER annoying, particularly in the spring and fall when the grass is wet and the ground is soft and your heels sink into the mud while strapping the kids in their car seats.

Were currently in the gravel compacting stage and then on to the sand hauling and paver placing phase of the project - Joel thinks weve entered the home stretch.  Gawd, I hope so.  Otherwise, by the time were done, itll be July or August and 105 degrees outside and no one will want to eat out there.