It's a Patio...in my backyard!

THE RAVENNA HOUSE Well guys it's officially rainy season here in Seattle.  You know what that means.  We expect a lot of wet weather, day in and day out, for about six months.  But  this year has been different.  We've gotten a spell of cold that's had the sun shining bright and the falling-leaves dry.  So far, it's actually been a beautiful fall, and we've taken full advantage of it to make progress on the patio.

After we got back from New Orleans, we rented a plate compactor and leveled out the gravel base we had laid in the backyard.

Disregard the mess along the sagging fences.  Some day Garrett is going to build me a storage shed.  And than a fence.  :)

We wanted the patio to be long - about the length of the parking pad - and 12' in width.  That way we can use it for overflow parking if need be.  We prepped the patio area with gravel and after we graded and compacted it, we started laying pavers.

I scored some free granite paver left-overs from a commercial plaza downtown through a connection at work.  The pavers are generally 1'x2' in size but we also got a lot of miscellaneous-sized cut pieces.  So we fit them together like a puzzle.  I think it looks pretty cool plus they were free.  And free is my favorite price :)

To lay the pavers, we set down a couple inches of sand in a small area - about 10sf- and leveled it using a 2x4 and some old yard-tool handles.  Here's Wilder stepping in the leveled-sand on the first day of laying pavers:

Wilder didn't actually get to lay any pavers due to the fact that they weigh upwards of 50lbs.  Per piece!  But Wilder did get to throw the small cast-offs around.  Plus he helped by "digging" and picking up leaves.  This kiddo loves to help. When he sees dada put on his work boots, he starts jumping up and down and squealing, knowing he gets to go outside and help dada work.  And when I come out to inspect the work (someone's got to do quality control after all), he loves to tell me about it in giant hand-gestures and babbled-sentences.  It's really the sweetest!

Here we are about half way done laying the patio:

And here's the finished product, Wilder-tested and approved:

I'm noticing our concrete driveway is looking a little lackluster these days.  While I doubt we'll get around to repairing the concrete, hopefully it gets a good power wash.  Or maybe just a good rain.

We swept sand in-between the pavers.  After a rain storm or two we'll probably have to lay some more, but for now it's done.  We still plan to lay some kind of border around the patio - not sure if it will be concrete or just a flower bed.

Well it's nice to be able to say (finally) that the patio is done.  Done, done, done!  Next up: a shed for mama and a fence for Bubba!

More on the backyard renovation here, here, and here.

xoxo

-Cathy

p.s. This New Orleans house is amazing.

p.p.s. Have you guys been listening to Serial?  Get on board...it's awesome!!!

p.p.p.s. I would live in this NYC apartment.  Oh yes, yes I would.