Part 1 here
Well in the past two months we have made some good progress on our patio and have had plenty of frustrating moments along the way as well. When we bought the old, original house, there was a small paver patio and a paver walkway weaving along the back part of the house. We saved those pavers with the thought that we'd be able to use them again in the future. We tried to estimate how many pavers we had versus how many we needed based on the square footage of the excavated area where the patio was to go, and we figure out that we needed about 25% more pavers. This is where we ran into difficulty. This whole time we knew we'd be short some pavers, but we always assumed that we'd be able to go to a paver store and just buy what we needed. So we laid down about half of the patio and then once it looked as though we were starting to run out of old pavers, we went down to Pavingstone Supply in Ballard.
The nice folks at Pavingstone informed us that while they had the pavers in the correct dimensions that we needed, the style had changed and we would have to pick something that looked fairly different from what we already had. It was at that point that we realized our only real option was to tear up everything we had already done, so that we could evenly mix in the new pavers, so that there wasn't a clear demarcation between where we ran out of old pavers and started using new ones. Ripping up nearly a month's worth of work was demoralizing to say the least, but we knew we wouldn't regret it in the long run.
Anyway we started again at the beginning of January and amazingly we got a string of good weather that allowed us to make tremendous strides toward finishing the patio. While Michael did most of the prep work (excavating the dirt, picking up, unloading and then laying gravel and sand and moving the pavers into piles for easy use), I laid most of the pavers. We would work together on the weekends and then during the week, I worked in the mornings and during nap time. That way I could squeeze in about 10 hours of work on the patio each week. We finally finished the damn thing this past weekend, and even laid the steps leading up to the shed path. I could not be more relieved! The only thing left to do is spread paving joint sand into the crevices between the pavers and rebuild the path to the shed (that will actually be a semi-major undertaking as well). Our goal is to have a nice level path leading from the patio steps, to the shed. That is stage II, starting any day now.
Other parts of the yard are starting to take shape as well. Michael built the rest of the raised garden boxes and filled them with dirt for me. Also Swanson's Nursery is having their annual early spring sale right now, and I stocked up on flowering shrubs and fruit trees. I got a couple of Magic Carpet spireas, a Blushing Bride hydrangea, a Vanessa grape vine, two Patriot blueberry plants, 5 dogwood shrubs for a shrub border for the front of the house, and the plants I am most excited about are 12 strawberry plants, two apples and a plum tree. The apples are a dwarf Pink Lady and a Honeycrisp, and the plum is actually a mixed plum with 5 different varieties on one tree. Ooooh I am SO thrilled to think that in a few years I will once again have a back yard edible Eden. I loved having that so much at the old house and it just about killed me to have a barren wasteland for a back yard last summer. This summer will be so much better! I am just so excited to transform our yard into our dream back yard retreat. There is so much more left to do still, but I am excited at our progress thus far!
Well in the past two months we have made some good progress on our patio and have had plenty of frustrating moments along the way as well. When we bought the old, original house, there was a small paver patio and a paver walkway weaving along the back part of the house. We saved those pavers with the thought that we'd be able to use them again in the future. We tried to estimate how many pavers we had versus how many we needed based on the square footage of the excavated area where the patio was to go, and we figure out that we needed about 25% more pavers. This is where we ran into difficulty. This whole time we knew we'd be short some pavers, but we always assumed that we'd be able to go to a paver store and just buy what we needed. So we laid down about half of the patio and then once it looked as though we were starting to run out of old pavers, we went down to Pavingstone Supply in Ballard.
Anyway we started again at the beginning of January and amazingly we got a string of good weather that allowed us to make tremendous strides toward finishing the patio. While Michael did most of the prep work (excavating the dirt, picking up, unloading and then laying gravel and sand and moving the pavers into piles for easy use), I laid most of the pavers. We would work together on the weekends and then during the week, I worked in the mornings and during nap time. That way I could squeeze in about 10 hours of work on the patio each week. We finally finished the damn thing this past weekend, and even laid the steps leading up to the shed path. I could not be more relieved! The only thing left to do is spread paving joint sand into the crevices between the pavers and rebuild the path to the shed (that will actually be a semi-major undertaking as well). Our goal is to have a nice level path leading from the patio steps, to the shed. That is stage II, starting any day now.Other parts of the yard are starting to take shape as well. Michael built the rest of the raised garden boxes and filled them with dirt for me. Also Swanson's Nursery is having their annual early spring sale right now, and I stocked up on flowering shrubs and fruit trees. I got a couple of Magic Carpet spireas, a Blushing Bride hydrangea, a Vanessa grape vine, two Patriot blueberry plants, 5 dogwood shrubs for a shrub border for the front of the house, and the plants I am most excited about are 12 strawberry plants, two apples and a plum tree. The apples are a dwarf Pink Lady and a Honeycrisp, and the plum is actually a mixed plum with 5 different varieties on one tree. Ooooh I am SO thrilled to think that in a few years I will once again have a back yard edible Eden. I loved having that so much at the old house and it just about killed me to have a barren wasteland for a back yard last summer. This summer will be so much better! I am just so excited to transform our yard into our dream back yard retreat. There is so much more left to do still, but I am excited at our progress thus far!
Below is a before and after shot of the patio area :)
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