grow, marvel, eat, laugh, persevere

Friday, April 4, 2008

Patio Project Day 1 Wrapped Up

Here's what the patio looked like at the end of day 1. As you can see, the area has been dug out and the gravel filled in.

Thomas called me at work when the first got started to say that, even though we'd agreed on a 16 x 18 patio, the existing one which I thought was 16 feet wide, is actually 17 feet 6 inches wide. So, I decided to go ahead and make the patio 18 x 18. That night, Thomas called to go over all the challenges they'd run into. Like the one below where the drain was destroyed when they were removing the old concrete.

Also, the walkway is uneven so they are going to need to do some fancy grading so that I won't fall and crack my head open while walking from the patio to the walkway. From what I understand, the patio will need to be slanted slightly toward the drain and the runoff will be directed into the drain. This will allow them to make the two surfaces even.

The other problem was that the grass on the far end of the patio is actually higher than the walkway. To fix that, they'll need to shave off the surface of the grass and then place the sod back on top so that it's even with the patio surface. See what I mean about being glad that I didn't attempt to install this myself? What a pain in the butt!

So, day 1 was extremely productive and all that remains is to come back to install the pavers.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how you make 1 day into 3. Sorry for dragging this out for so long but I did not want to make the day 1 post into such a long one that even I wouldn't want to read it.

3 comments:

  1. How exciting to see it begin to take shape!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh boy, good thing you didn't do it yourself1

    It never fails that when you scratch below the surface you find the bugs!

    I'm sure it will be great in the end!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You'll be happier with the bigger size. Bigger is always better! But then I live in Texas, so I have to say that. I too leave the extra-difficult chores to the experts. You can end up spending far more money when you truly don't know what you're doing.
    Brenda

    ReplyDelete