Tags
BBQ, Deck, DIY, Do it yourself, Grace Elizabeth's, landscape, Landscaping, Lowe's, Outdoor room, Outside fun, Patio, Pavers, Weekend Project
Have you ever laid a patio yourself? We did some time ago, but this time we put a little more thought and effort into it. Maybe I should say our daughter and son-in-law put a lot of back-breaking, knee bruising effort into it.
Ok, now I have to be honest. We didn’t follow all the steps for a “professionally” designed paver patio. Lowe’s website has a nice materials and tools list if you want to go the extra mile. We chose not to put gravel down before the sand. We may regret that later but last time we skipped both the gravel and sand. We just laid the pavers on a semi-level base of dirt. That patio served its purpose and we were not disappointed.
We purchased our 16″ x 16″ pavers on sale, of course, and bought 10 at a time making several trips to the store. Since we do not have a pickup we felt we could only put the weight of 10 blocks at a time in our Kia Soul. For the sand we had a local sand and gravel company deliver 1 ton of sand. Yes it was more than we needed but worth it rather than buying a zillion bags of sand.
Once we had all our materials we had to wait for the patio area to dry. It rained off and on for several weeks but we finally had a perfect weekend – a bit hot – to lay the patio. Unfortunately our soil is clay so removing the soil was very difficult: mucky, hard to dig and came out in large clumps. Good thing we had a lot of sand to fill the big holes.
Well that’s about it. You can see we used a level to place the pavers as even as we could. We are very happy with the final product. Someday we will get some edging bricks to finish around the edges, particularly by the plants. Watch for updates.
Thanks Alex and Jake for making our patio!!!
Tell us about your patio project. Is this something you would attempt yourself?
Sonya Kay
In one month school will begin…And this teacher will be ready. I have finally hit the magically number of 3. I survived the first year – just keeping my head above water. In my second year I settled in and made improvements to what I implemented in my first year. I am excited to start the third! Now that I am comfortable in the classroom, I am thrilled to see what this year will bring.
I took what I liked from each of those categories and made some minor changes for this year’s planner. It’s so crisp, clean, and ready to go! I can take a deep *sigh* knowing that no matter how crazy things get this year – I can at least keep my sanity. I would go insane if I didn’t have this organizational tool.
My favorite new part is the notes pages I added. These will be perfect for login and passwords, staff meetings, and collaboration with teachers/administrators/parents.
