The past few weeks have been a little crazy at our house. Mark and his dad have started construction on an amazing tree house. I am at awe of there patience and skill. Especially their measuring abilities. Perfect. Meanwhile, a landscaping crew has started working on our new patio. I have tried to take pictures at the end of every day - but these guys have been working hard. The patio wasn't in great condition to start with.
This was our patio:
Someone had constructed their own hand laid brick patio - maybe 10 or 15 years ago? It has been sagging and crumbling since we moved into this house.
First step - we rented a pressure washer and "we" (Mark) cleaned the steps for our sun room. Wow. What an amazing difference. The contractor kept asking if we had just hired someone to put the steps in. They look so great. We wanted to be ready for the "hard scape" crew to begin the project. Then they arrived...
Day 1 of patio work - demolition.
Goodbye brick patio.
The crew also put concrete footers on our stairs and raised one side an inch to make it more level. Needless to say, things are a little "sagging" at the back of our sunroom.
Day 2 - concrete discovery. Once they removed the brick patio, they found another concrete patio underneath. We had decided on cobblestone pavers for our new patio - but Darren, our landscape designer, gave us the option of a flagstone patio once he discovered the concrete. At the same cost. Yippeee!!!! (that is what I really wanted - but the pavers were cheaper)
We also have a sprinkler system in our yard - that we have never been able to turn on. And with the demolition, we discovered that the sprinklers went through out our grass area. Wow. Now we need to see if they work.
Day 3 - more concrete and rain. The guys spent a lot of the day leveling out the area and pouring concrete. Then dusk hit around 7 pm and the guys were forced to stop. Not only were the deck steps slanted, so was the concrete that had been poured...20+ years ago. So they put in more concrete to make the patio bigger as well as leveling the old concrete slab.
Oh yah - I made Mark get one of the big rocks they dug up. I wanted it for the kid's rock garden. Isn't he a great husband?
Day 4 - beautiful flagstone arrives. I love flagstone. The crew started placing the flagstone and designing the curve of the patio. Unfortunately, this is when the rain began. It lasted a few days, making progress pause on the patio. They came back a few days later and cleaned up debris. But there was no progress on the patio for a few days.
Day 5 - I should say day 5 of work. They made a lot of progress on laying the stone. It started looking like a patio!
Day 6 - For some reason there was only one guy working for the past few days. Our dog was getting a little tired of being cooped up in his crate.
When they removed the old ugly brick step, this ugliness was left behind. The crew designed a little ledge to hid the ugly foundation.
And here you can see the ugly old brick patio under our sun room. Remember that our old patio was crumbling and un-level? Yep, that is what is holding up our sun room. Let's not think about that...
Day 7 - This is the "completed" patio. They still need to come back and pressure wash it in a few weeks, and lay grass seed on our dirt mound. But we can't wait to use this space!!
They even put patio steps in for us. Obviously, they need to fill in the few cracks. This is a huge improvement over the cinderblocks that were left by the previous owner as "steps."
This was our patio:
Someone had constructed their own hand laid brick patio - maybe 10 or 15 years ago? It has been sagging and crumbling since we moved into this house.
First step - we rented a pressure washer and "we" (Mark) cleaned the steps for our sun room. Wow. What an amazing difference. The contractor kept asking if we had just hired someone to put the steps in. They look so great. We wanted to be ready for the "hard scape" crew to begin the project. Then they arrived...
Day 1 of patio work - demolition.
Goodbye brick patio.
The crew also put concrete footers on our stairs and raised one side an inch to make it more level. Needless to say, things are a little "sagging" at the back of our sunroom.
Day 2 - concrete discovery. Once they removed the brick patio, they found another concrete patio underneath. We had decided on cobblestone pavers for our new patio - but Darren, our landscape designer, gave us the option of a flagstone patio once he discovered the concrete. At the same cost. Yippeee!!!! (that is what I really wanted - but the pavers were cheaper)
We also have a sprinkler system in our yard - that we have never been able to turn on. And with the demolition, we discovered that the sprinklers went through out our grass area. Wow. Now we need to see if they work.
Day 3 - more concrete and rain. The guys spent a lot of the day leveling out the area and pouring concrete. Then dusk hit around 7 pm and the guys were forced to stop. Not only were the deck steps slanted, so was the concrete that had been poured...20+ years ago. So they put in more concrete to make the patio bigger as well as leveling the old concrete slab.
Oh yah - I made Mark get one of the big rocks they dug up. I wanted it for the kid's rock garden. Isn't he a great husband?
Day 4 - beautiful flagstone arrives. I love flagstone. The crew started placing the flagstone and designing the curve of the patio. Unfortunately, this is when the rain began. It lasted a few days, making progress pause on the patio. They came back a few days later and cleaned up debris. But there was no progress on the patio for a few days.
Day 5 - I should say day 5 of work. They made a lot of progress on laying the stone. It started looking like a patio!
Day 6 - For some reason there was only one guy working for the past few days. Our dog was getting a little tired of being cooped up in his crate.
When they removed the old ugly brick step, this ugliness was left behind. The crew designed a little ledge to hid the ugly foundation.
And here you can see the ugly old brick patio under our sun room. Remember that our old patio was crumbling and un-level? Yep, that is what is holding up our sun room. Let's not think about that...
Day 7 - This is the "completed" patio. They still need to come back and pressure wash it in a few weeks, and lay grass seed on our dirt mound. But we can't wait to use this space!!
They even put patio steps in for us. Obviously, they need to fill in the few cracks. This is a huge improvement over the cinderblocks that were left by the previous owner as "steps."
And that is our patio! Next post - our new tree house. I still can't believe we did both things at the same time.... I will take another picture once it is washed and has some kind of furniture on it. Come on over and enjoy our patio!
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