Our Patio!

So, we waited all summer for our patio, mainly due to figuring the whole thing out, picking stones, getting a permit, and the landscaper’s schedule, but it was finally finished a couple weeks ago!  I absolutely love it, and I’m glad we still have some time to enjoy it yet this year before winter sets in.

I have progress photos from each day something was worked on and completed:

Day one:  The stones were brought to the house and the base was spread over the grass.  We had the patio built up, not dug into the ground because we have a sloped yard, and the water would have run onto the patio if we would have had it even with the rest of the yard.

 

 

 

This little area might look funny, but we had a plan for it – you’ll see in the finished product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day two:

The border was put in place, the border stones were laid out, and the main stones were starting to get laid out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kind of crappy wooden step was finally gone!  He had to cut the thing off because of how it was bolted to the house, but we saved the step mainly for wood, since we did pay like $180 to have the thing put on when we bought the house!

View from the upstairs out onto the patio:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We picked EP Henry stones, Village Square style, in the pewter blend laid in a random pattern with charcoal brickstones for the border.

Day three:  Patio stones are all laid out and sanded in place!  All that’s left is the drain off to the side, the stone step to replace the wooden ones, and finish off the planting bed around it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day four:  Original step design was put in place, but luckily not glued in place.  It turned out a little to shallow, and we were afraid of falls happening on it when coming in and out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See how small it is?  I have small feet, and my shoes hung over the end of the step when I stood on it!  We re-designed, picked up more stone, and created a much nicer, larger, and safer step:

Day five:  new step in place!  Fix-ups done!  Planting bed edged and ready for flowers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And finally, the finished patio!  Plants planted, pergola set up, table and chairs set out, grill in place, and that little circle area filled in:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have 2 butterfly bushes, Belgian mums, day lilies, and icicle pansies currently planted around the patio.  Once the weather cools down slightly and stays cool, I have tulip and daffodil bulbs to plant, so in the spring we will have those growing, the icicle pansies coming back, and the butterfly bushes.  I may have to get other annuals for the summer.

Unfortunately, today’s weather has been very rainy and windy.  The wind blew 2 of my chairs around, one of which landed on one of my mums and crushed it.  It also managed to blow the grill over, which landed on one of my butterfly bushes.  The grill is dented in the rear, and we’re hoping that’s the only damage, but we won’t know until we use it.  I tried to fix up the mum, but I don’t know if it was too broken to snap back, and the butterfly bush was pretty crushed, but I’m hoping and thinking it should be ok.  We’re at the end of its blooming season, and in some areas they can be cut down all the way to the ground for winter, and grow back in the spring.  So hopefully that will sprout new branches and be ok.  It’s amazing how the wind we’ve had today, which is nothing compared to some days, caused so much destruction, but when we had 70 mph gusts last week for a bad storm, NOTHING HAPPENED!!!  It just doesn’t make sense.

So now I’m headed out in this crappy weather to do some grocery shopping, or we won’t have anything to eat after today.