Le Patio

After five weeks and lots of sweat and man hours on Andy's part, we've gone from this...
To this! Yes, we finally have a patio and somewhere sit so we'll actually use our backyard. We can't wait to start enjoying BBQs with friends and the beautiful summer weather.

In order to complete the project we had to answer the following questions:

1. Hire someone or do it ourselves? (It ended up being a hybrid of both)

2. Poured cement or paver stones? (You can see what triumphed)

3. How big should it be? (Fairly modest)

While I was in Arizona, Andy picked all the plants and did the landscaping himself. You can see the grass patches growing around the patio marking where he excavated. I've wanted to get Andy a grill for Father's Day for the past five years and finally did it. We just got patio furniture on Friday night. How we fit a huge table, six patio chairs, and a 9-foot umbrella into our Altima still befuddles us. It did involve driving home with Ben sitting on the floor of the front passenger seat.

After all the stones were laid.

In mid-May Andy decided he'd just do the project himself and started digging a huge hole in our backyard. When he started hitting pipes, one irrigation and one drainage, we thought it might be a good idea to enlist the help of a professional. So our friend who owns a remodeling business became our foreman and Andy his laborer. It turned out much higher quality and they finished quicker with two people on the job. Here they are, smoothing down the paving sand for the foundation.

You can see just a small portion of the sod Andy dug up with the assistance of our friend John C., who was surprisingly game to come over and do hard labor with only the promise of pizza as remuneration. The huge white bag is full of three tons of rocks and sand for the base.

I ended up getting my box garden after all because we had to have somewhere to put some of the extra dirt. I haven't yet planted everything, but Andy did a great job constructing the box. Ben and I bought some carrot seeds so those will be the first to go in.

I am so happy this project is over. I feel like our lives can go on, not that I really did anything besides offer moral support, check out DIY books from the library, act as a companion on Home Depot runs, and bring water out to the thirsty workers. Thank you Andy (and those who helped) for all your hard work!! It turned out better than I had hoped. I also now know that I have absolutely no real interest in or stomach for major home repair projects.