Yard Overhaul Part III

As if putting in new grass wasn't enough for the Turner family summer projects, we decided to break our backs putting in a patio. As you can see in these pictures the grass is coming in quite nicely. We killed off a path walking and rolling the wheel barrow across parts of the yard despite our attempt not to by using cut plywood. We'll have to patch that up at some point.

There is a section of our yard that never sees the sun which resulted in a muddy area with no grass growing. Doesn't that sound perfect for dogs? or future kids? We decided the best way to remedy the problem was to put in a patio. ha! You would think that we learned our lesson with the grass...but of course we decided to do it ourselves! We also added in a section on the other side of the house, which wasn't part of the original plan, but also got little sun and was therefore muddy. The two sections of patio are connected with a soldier run (one line of pavers) and a flower bed. My dad & father-in-law have now decided HGTV is of the devil! Somehow their video on building a patio only lasted 5 minutes!?

Overall we are happy with the end result. We have a few things to complete: finish the fire pit, finish the soldier run, fill in the flower bed (prob. do that next summer). I told john his next project better be small because the projects have increased in labor and decreased with help! The first project was putting in the fence & john had Steve, dad, Matt, Stevie and Papa to help. The second was the grass with Steve, dad & Steven T. The patio was the hardest of all and he had dad & Steve.

ok...ok...enough words, here are the pictures.

STEP 1: DIG
and I mean dig...for 2 weekends straight. Special thanks to Jake who helped us finish up the digging part. You dig around 6" deep.

my shovel was piled high with mud &heavier than I could handle so I took a dive into the muddy clay

this is where the firepit will go!

we call him Miguel.
The small section of patio is to the left of the porch, the larger section is to the right. In front of the porch (where the wood is) will be a flower bed & a small section of pavers will connect the two, making the edge of the flower bed.

STEP 2: LAY YOUR BASE. We used crushed gravel & rented a tamper to compact it down.

Jax used the gravel for a pillow

STEP 3: LAY THE PAVERS

Raleigh was in the middle of the action, anyone surprised?

STEP 4: FILL IN THE CRACKS. you use a special sand

small section (again, flower bed will be on the left)

large section

We are SOOOOOO happy to be done. John & I have had coffee on it every morning so far!