May 2016 - 2 tons of sand, 5 tons of gravel, 12 tons of pavers, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow. What have I gotten myself into?
A clean slate - just an ugly little brick side patio when I moved in.
The yard when I bought the house. Definitely missing something. So let's build a something.
After several iterations of patio shapes, I landed on this idea of overlapping square sections. A little abstract, but very unique and pretty cool. Going for it.
Painting the outline of the patio to get a feel for shape and size. Also helped steer the digging.
And away we go! In an effort to keep budgets down, I'll be doing everything by hand. I'm ridiculous.
Big assist from Casey in digging up the grass itself and pulling out an old tree stump.
Running demo on the old back step. A big hunk of concrete with a brick facade.
Step, meet sledgehammer. Sledgehammer, this is step.
More wheelbarrow fun! Carting several tons of crush n run gravel in from the driveway and hand tamping it down. It was about here where the blisters started to form.
Assist from Nicolette in stringing up some line for leveling the gravel.
All ready for leveling sand and the pavers themselves!
Going all A Beautiful Mind on the paver patterns. Each shape is an obscure measurement, but finding the LCD between them reduces each shape to a simple dimension - 1x2, 2x3, 4x4, and 4x5.
With my simple dimensions for each paver shape, it was easy to make some cutout paper pavers and practice different patterns on a grid. Way easier than learning with the 30lb pavers themselves.
Big assist from Morgan in getting some awesome pavers at a discount. Also HOLY SHIT THAT'S A LOT OF PAVERS.
Screeding base sand over some pvc pipes and starting to set pavers in place. Did I mention the pavers have to be brought in by hand?
Using the smaller border pavers as spacers. These borders will also outline the square sections.
Several days spent lugging concrete pavers in from the front yard. Almost there!
Last few pieces!
Ripped out the old ugly brick and brought in the new hotness.
What's left of the paver supply.
Spreading the paver joint sand over the entire surface and brushing it in between every paver. More blisters.
Tadaaa!
Wishing the borders were a little darker, but still very happy with the overlapping squares.
Extra tall fire pit? Extra tall fire pit.
Not sure what possessed me to set the fire pit at a diagonal, but I dig it.
And it works!