Our New Patio

We moved into our house last April. We fixed up all the insides and now we are fixing up the outside. Here is what our yard looked like in March:

(This is just the area where the stone patio is)

We have seeded it, put up a retaining wall, made a little veggie garden and some flower gardens. On Memorial day weekend we decided to put the patio in (we already have a covered cement patio but we like pavers a lot around here so we extended it) Lucky for me my husband knows how to do that. Also lucky for us its all sand. He started by grading it and making sure it would be flush with the current cement patio. He had a genius idea to get it level quickly by using pvc pipe underneath. He used that board and that hose for a few hours level wet level wet level wet.

He started on the border and put in the pattern of choice.

I unloaded all 420 pavers from the truck! (the prep work takes a long time and I wanted this thing done quickly so yeah I unloaded)

We only ended up using 390 because 30 of the pavers had weird white and purple stains. Then we rented a plate tamper and bought the special sand that has a little cement mixed in. Then he swept the sand into all the cracks and then plate tampered the whole thing (it is really loud)
Then he hosed off all the excess sand and sat down with a nice cold coca cola in a glass bottle
And I realized I have NO patio furniture at all so I grabbed an outcast piece of furniture that served its purpose long ago and let it join the party.

There is still sand showing in 40% of the yard so the kids like to throw wet sand (also know as mud) all over the new patio, it is summer after all. We love the new patio! Now we are just waiting on the HOA to approve our plans for making the surrounding block wall higher so we can go outside and not know that our neighbor is having salmon for dinner.

Cost:
150 6 inch pavers @ .43 each $64.50 (home depot memorial day sale)
270 9 inch pavers @ .63 each $170.10
Plate tamper rental @ Home Depot $56 for 4 hours (he used it for 20 minutes)
5 pieces of pvc pipe $6.10
4 bags of sand $80

total: $376.70

totally worth it in my eyes because I love stone pavers!! although you have to do it right or they will be all wonky and not level. I feel like I added 120 square feet to my house because I am going to enjoy this area A LOT. Oh and the entire patio is shaded from 1 oclock and onward in the summer days so we don't have to worry about sun cover!! YAY!! Oh and when he started with drawing up the yard I told him I wanted this area to feel like a courtyard and I think its well on its way!

If you have any questions about actual details on the How To just ask and I will ask the Man :)





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