2011 August | Hello from Portland

Update on Patio

So…we’ve been busy getting ready for Burning Man but wanted to update you on the patio. We finished in time for friends to come over and the engagement/house warming party!! Yay!!

Now that we’re done I can honestly say I’m glad we did it but I most likely will never do it again. When I told Justin this he said, “What about at our next house? We might want to build one there.” Oh no…none of that. Now I see why people get payed $10,000 to do this work! I told Justin I wouldn’t do it for that much however…I will consider it if free raspberries for life are included.

What we did:

-Busted out the old ugly concrete slab

-used the busted up chunks to make a pathway to roll out our recycling and garbage bins on

-graded a piece of yard which gradually tips to one side for runoff

-placed each piece of flagstone rock

-filled in all patio cracks with polymeric sand

We did learn that getting slightly cheaper flagstone from sweet ol’ yokles instead of paying full price at a large company meant that our patio has a nice natural wave to it. The water runs off fine but boy was it hard to match up connecting rocks that not only had uneven underbellies but also have lovely curves to the top.

A good portion of the rocks we had delivered were either too thin or way to wavy to use in the patio. Which meant our layout of the patio needed to change. So, we built a garden bed in the middle and a fire pit on one side. I totally LOVE the fire pit!! We’ll have to rig something up during the rainy season so we can sit under a shelter while enjoying our fire in the rain.

BEFORE: