I can’t keep a lid on it anymore!

I have mentioned a few times that there are things happening outside my window- just to tease you.  But I am just teasing myself - I have to show you what’s going on!  There are going to be a few stages to it, so to show all of it to you at once would be to long to post all at once!  I’ll just show you what we have been doing so far.  We have finally been working on the patio that has been in ‘the plans’ for a few years now!  Um, like 3? 4 years?  Yeah.  That’s how we roll around here.  We started this project because our existing patio was just not big enough for a table and chairs and grill- no room to walk around for the 5 of us and any friends or family that would join us for cookouts.  People would end up sitting on the steps with their food in their lap, or just stand and try to eat.  So we decided we needed to extend it.

This is a picture from 10 years ago of the area.  It was Brady’s 3rd birthday party, and we had to have a few picnic tables off the patio for us all to have a place to sit.  In the right hand side of the picture, you can see the kid’s tables, but you can’t see the adult picnic tables b/c they had to be that far from the patio because of the little hill there.

We knew we would have to ‘dig out’ the area.  Then there was the problem of what to use for a retaining wall.  Well, Hubs came up with the idea to use foundation stones that he had seen laying around in different areas of of the orchard and woods.  So it took him probably most of the first year and part of the second, to gather up a lot of the stones.  Some of them were pretty hefty and took 2 men to move them- and they were barely able to move some of them!  We dug the area out (trailer load after trailer load of dirt) and started putting in the retaining wall the second year. Then we decided to not only go off the side, but to wrap it around the flower garden we had in front of the patio- to make the add-on kind of L shaped.  So we would have to build a wall so that we could fill in to level the area out- again, because we live on the side of a hill.  We got that part done in 2008- I know b/c I checked back on my blog for this picture! lol 

This is from my craft ‘alcove’ looking out the sliding glass doors.  You can see a chair on the corner of the existing patio on the left, and the rocks are the part of the wall we had to build to extend.  So it has looked like this since 2008.  Last year, we had every intention of working on it, and hopefully finishing it, but with sports schedules, family life, work, etc…the ‘patio’ got pushed to the back burner.  We were having a bit of a design argument about it too.  lol  I wanted to build a pergola on it-nothing fancy- but, he didn’t know that that was necessary.  It gets full sun all day and is just too hot the sit out there until evening.  I thought a pergola would allow for a little more shade.  And call me redneck if you want, but I wanted a pergola that we could pull a tarp or cover up over for the cook-outs that we plan on rainy days!  Which seems to happen a lot.  There is quite a drop off down into the flower garden also, so we have to build a railing on those sides.  If we were going to add a pergola, then we needed to plan for all of that at the same time to decide where to put the posts.  SO…it’s been an off and on sort of situation.  FINALLY, this year, he started talking about it again.  I think it helped that his best friend has been laid off all winter, and he has been around a lot.  He has been helping us figure out dimensions, and how we can add the railing and even the pergola!  So a few weeks ago, they started on it. This is what the whole area looked like when they just started a few weeks ago- not very pleasing to the eye.  He had to reset a few of the retaining wall stones.  I hate to show this, because it’s embarassing that I’ve looked at this mess for so long, but it will make you (and ME!) appreciate the progress even more!

Ha ha…see my spray paint area? lol  I was spraying a few things to make over that day.

He had to finish out the end wall with a few better stones and I got a  picture of Calvin and him doing that.  Through the kitchen window, of course.  I’ve told you how much Calvin hates having his picture taken. lol

By the looks of it, Calvin is the one doing the work!  I had mentioned that Calvin had been helping out a lot more lately, and this is the project that made me really realize it.  It’s a good thing too, b/c Hubs really needed help moving those stones.

We decided to just use the 12 inch pavers that garden centers carry, for the adding on.  They are cost effective (we got them on special for 98 cents a piece) and they seem to hold up pretty good from looking at other people’s patios that have been built the same way.  We got sand delivered last week and the guys started laying pavers.  Then the rain hit.  Fun fun.  This is what they got accomplished the first and second days- before the rain.  Looks more like after the rain…look at my poor lilacs drooping!  lol

  And THIS is what I did yesterday…

The rain actually helped because it packed the sand pretty good.  Notice how the paver stacks shrunk?  Hubs was pretty surprised that I did that while he was at work :-)  There are some low pavers where the 4 x4 is laying on there, so I am going to have to pull out some of the first 2 to 3 rows to fix that. The boys were helping with those rows and I noticed them, but I don’t think Hubs noticed until he saw how well I laid my pavers ;-)

We had to call for more sand ( you see that Gannon took advantage of it with his dump truck! lol)  The pavers are only going to go for 3 more rows.  Then we are going to have to put in the posts for that side of the pergola, which will be built over the new paver area, and the the rest of the dirt area will be filled in with small stones of some sort.  We want our fire ring out there toward the lilac bush, so we figured that small stone in that area will be better, and we will still be able to have a few chairs out there to sit near the fire.  To remind you again, it went from this..

to THIS in basically just over a week! Okay- the lilac bushes make it look more amazing because they picked now to bloom!  lol

At the bottom left of the picture, you can see the flower garden.  The railing will go on both sides of  the corner.  I don’t want anyone falling down into it and hitting their head!  It’s amazing that it hasn’t happened so far with the amount of chairs and people we have had crowded on here in the past.

So you can see now, why I’m excited about this!  We have made some amazing progress so far and I am so looking forward to the new outdoor living space I will have to accessorize and decorate!  I am really looking forward to being able to just use that space.   What do you think so far?

Real quick- a funny conversation I had with Gannon this morning.

G- You need to make that egg and sausage stuff that I like.  Know what I’m talking about?

Me- That egg and sausage casserole with cheese and spinach?

G- I don’t like the spinach. But I like the cheese.

Me-You can’t even taste the spinach in it.  But it does stick in your teeth.

G- Is that why you like it?

Me- Because it sticks in my teeth?

G- Yeah.  Is that why?

Me (stifling a giggle)- Yep.

G- Oh. Okay.

That kid cracks me up.

I’d better hurry up and get this posted so I can get to working out there.  It’s pretty cold out today, but I don’t want any more stalled progress.  I want to see post holes being dug soon!  I need to start cleaning out the flower beds next to the house too, so I can get some nicer pictures.  Check back soon and have a great day!