Hallelujah, the patio is done!
I’ve caught my breath a little bit and regained feeling in most of my muscles, so I’m back to tell you the end of the tale. Let’s see, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, with us me passed out on the mostly-laid pavers late Friday night.
As you know from Sherry’s post yesterday, we took Saturday off to have some family time / start Mother’s Day early. Then on Sunday afternoon, I decided to take an hour or two to finish cutting the pavers around the edge. Apparently my day away from patio made me forget how much effort each step of this process takes. My “hour or two” turned into “seven or eight.”
Allow me to demonstrate my process to explain why. Naturally, curved edges require lots of cuts. This I knew going in. But residual confidence from tiling our old bathroom had me ready to take on this more-than-beginner design.
So to determine where to place each cut, I laid my full stone in place against the border pavers (which I’ve learned is called “a soldier course”) and marked where my cut should go (the area that overlapped the border) with a pencil.
To cut, I entrusted my brother-from-an-inanimate-object-mother: the wet saw. You may remember I fell in love with this guy during the bathroom project in our first house. But after all of the recent patio craziness, we aren’t so chummy anymore (we’re not “tight” or “aight” as the kids say).
It’s really not the poor saw’s fault. He just wasn’t meant for this type of job. But since he was free (aka, on loan from my dad, who paid $99 for it btw) I wanted to give him a shot, instead of dropping $700 on his big brother. The issue is that my blade wouldn’t cut through all 2.5-ish inches of paver (those suckers were thick). So I had to do 2 cuts per paver – one, then another one from the other side once the paver was flipped over. Some particularly long cuts even required 4 trips down ol’ Wet Saw Lane because part of the machine blocked the whole stone from sliding through all of the way. And even after two to four cuts per paver, I still had to break the stones apart with a quick chisel-like move (thanks to a hammer and screwdriver) to smash the piece in the middle that my blade clearly still couldn’t reach:
So multiply two to four cuts per paver by the 50+ stones that needed cutting and you’ll start to understand why it took me so long. That $700 big daddy wet saw was starting to look well worth the money by about hour three. But I’m cheap. So I stuck with the borrowed (free) one.
Assuming my cut was accurate (which it wasn’t always, unfortunately) all I had to do was lay the cut stone in place and tap it down gently with a rubber mallet (which we used when setting all of the pavers in the middle and along the border of the patio as well, just so they sunk slightly into the bed of sand and were level/secure).
Despite all of the hassle, when it works – it’s a beautiful thing (plus I later learned that the sand that I’d brush between the stones would camouflage some of the less perfect cuts really well).
By the end of Sunday I had finished all of my cuts and even had enough energy to remove and re-attach one of our sagging gates (it threatened to scrape the stone a bit when closed).
So here’s the patio in all of it’s pre-sand glory (the whiter edge pavers are just lighter from wet saw dust that hadn’t been hosed off yet).
And here I amid all of my post-paver cutting sexiness. Happy Mother’s Day to Sherry, right? That’s spray from the wet saw all over my shirt and face (thank goodness for goggles, wish I had bought a mask). And notice the yellow hands? That’s some sort of strange stain from my work gloves (apparently they don’t like getting wet).
Oh, and since I promised more info about the pattern – here it is a bit closer:
We’ve heard it called both an “I Pattern” and a “K Pattern” (so feel free to split the alphabetical difference and go with “J Pattern”). Although sometimes I see it as more of an “H” – made up of two 6 x 9″ pavers and four 6 x 6″s – and flanked by more 6 x 9″s on all sides. There’s a diagram here that might make seeing the whole H thing more clear than our pic above.
The reason we opted for this pattern in the first place is because it’s what the previous owners chose for the pavers in our driveway (and we wanted a cohesive look). Plus we like that it looks sort of like organized chaos. It appears random but there’s really a method behind it all. We’re nerds for that stuff. The lady at the stone yard warned us that it can be more difficult than some of the truly random patio patterns, but we honestly found it pretty straightforward once we got our first few pavers down. We just constructed one or two of those H-looking shapes and built out from there.
When Monday rolled around, I prepared for the final step by breaking out a broom and some leftover bags of paver sand (when I ran short on Friday and grabbed sand at Lowe’s, I must’ve overcompensated a bit so I still had a lot left). The purpose of this top application of sand is to fill the cracks between the pavers so they don’t shift. The process was pretty straightforward. Step one: dump sand on pavers.
Step two: Push it around with your broom ’til all of the cracks have sand in them (this was just from one bag so far):
Step three: lightly mist the surface with water so that the sand slides down into the cracks.
Though it really is more like a twenty step process, because like shampoo-ing, it’s one of those “rinse and repeat” situations (or at least it was for me). See, my wet crack sand (wait, that sounds gross) did a lot of sliding between the pavers – making things not so pretty on top.
So I repeated. And repeated again. And then did some touch ups. This step seemed to take longer than I expected (consider it to be the theme of this whole project) but by Monday afternoon it all seemed pretty settled into place for a consistent and even look. And happily the yellow-orange tint to the sand disappeared when it dried out (it was really wet and clumpy when we applied it but it thinned and dried to a nice complementary gray tone).
Oh and here’s a note for all you fancy patio DIYers. If you have it in the budget you can splurge for Polymeric Sand (which basically gets brushed on and then misted with water, which turns it into a concrete-like consistency so it sets up hard to discourage weeds and all that good stuff). But thanks to our bursting patio budget, we opted to use standard paver sand which was about $100 cheaper (it was used on the patio at our last house which we enjoyed for 3+ years without much more than very occasional weeding so we knew it would work for now). And we can always upgrade to the good sand later (if we have $100 to spare down the road, it’s as simple as spraying the sand out of the cracks with the highest hose setting and switching to the fancy Polymeric stuff).
Anyway, with my sand step done, I jubilantly (yes, I was beyond excited to be almost done) moved on to my last task before handing things over to Sherry, which was backfilling the edges of the patio with dirt (since exposed plastic edging is akin to VPL). I forgot to take an “after” of my borders all filled in with dirt, so let’s fast forward to the real after afters. But first, let’s enjoy a look back at two liriope-filled before shots:
And now the patio-tastic after fest- complete with totally temporary furniture:
Since we sold all of our old patio furniture before we moved (which wouldn’t have worked well in this layout anyway) this is all random stuff that we had in the sunroom/basement/cluttered playroom. Actually a lot of it isn’t rain-proof at all, so Sherry just dragged it out there for fun (yes, after pics with temporary furniture is her idea of a good time because she thinks an empty patio reveal would have been “a real womp-womp”). I definitely agree that it helps with scale and stuff (and who am I to deny my wife of an hour of playing with already-owned pillows and random furniture?). I think we both just liked the idea of beginning to picture various ways that we can enjoy our new 300 square feet of added outdoor living space. And of course it’ll look a lot better with not temporary furniture when we can invest in some down the line.
Our long-term dream is to have some sort of daybed/loveseat with a coffee table to create a casual “outdoor living room” along with a spot for a sandbox slash baby pool for Clara. Because we have plans for a big outdoor dining zone somewhere else (but with an “outdoor living room” situation on the patio, we could still enjoy casual meals there).
Of course Sherry went nuts with the whole fantasy world and played scrabble with herself to conjure up this cozy scene (and even got two water glasses to suggest that she wasn’t out on the patio alone playing against herself). Busted.
But speaking of playing, we do seriously hope this is a space that Clara gets a lot of use out of. Since we no longer have that huge driveway behind our old house, we’ve wanted a spot where she can be outside, minus the fears of her running into the road. So this gated-on-all-sides area is perfect for whenever she doesn’t feel like playing in the grassy backyard beyond. Because chalk just isn’t as much fun in the grass.
Although Clara may be a few developmental milestones away from actually enjoying a game of hopscotch, at least it’s not too soon to tap sticks of chalk together.
And she only tried to eat it twice. That my friends, is progress.
The only item in our 100% temporary patio layout that will be permanent is the grill. It’s been hiding in my basement workroom since we moved because I had no other spot for it (it lived in the carport for a while but that was just weird). So from the moment we first started talking about Project Patio I had an area all planned out for this baby. And although I’m talking like I’m some big macho grillmaster, I’ve probably used the darn thing less than a dozen times. Hopefully its beautiful new home will inspire us to get better acquainted. Especially when we get some permanent outdoor furniture to go with it.
As for Sherry, she’s more excited about the “crowning jewel” of the patio as she likes to call it: a ceramic bird feeder that she snagged at Marshall’s for $9.99 a few weeks back. It’s been sitting on the counter next to our bathroom sink (away from roaming Clara hands) just waiting for a new patio to preside over. And it looks a heckova lot better out here than it did near the sink.
So there you have it, the end to our patio-building party. And it’s just in time to start setting up for the real party (Clara’s birthday on Saturday). Perhaps we’ll challenge our guests to some hopscotch?
We wouldn’t mind a few crossed fingers for good weather this Saturday. It rained on Clara’s birthday last year so we unscientifically decided that it couldn’t rain again this year (although the odds are probably the same every year). And as soon as we finished the patio I turned to Sherry and said “You know what this means right? We finished the patio in time so it’s going to rain on Saturday. We jinxed ourselves.” Here’s hoping I’m wrong.
Oh and here’s a rarely seen angle taken from the new lower patio looking up at the upper patio (which was always there) and the sliders in the living room and sunroom that lead out to it. That area was too small to accommodate our grill (let alone any larger seating arrangements) so we’re so glad that we expanded our outdoor living space with the addition of the paver patio below.
We estimate that we spent about 30 hours on the whole patio project, from planning to clean-up (but we did mess around with lots of curves and hit some crazy concrete during the demo phase, so it won’t necessarily take everyone that long). And now for the big ol’ budget breakdown:
- 300 square feet of Cottage Stone pavers (from Southside Building Supply): $621
- Heavy duty plastic patio edging and spikes (from Southside Building Supply): $69.00
- Paver sand (from Southside Building Supply & Lowe’s): $107
- Gravel (from Southside Building Supply): $240
- Delivery for pavers, sand, and gravel (from Southside Building Supply): $145
- Miscellaneous supplies (wood stakes, line levels, nylon string, and hand tamper from Home Depot): $40
- Weed blocking fabric & crampons (from Home Depot): $30
- Grand (ouch) total: $1,252*
*We actually paid $1,332 but got an $80 deposit back when we returned the bags that our gravel and sand came in.
We already chatted about how our original under 1K budget was blown here (well, in the waaay beginning Sherry proclaimed that this would be a two-day-under-$500 project, how wrong she was). But in the end we’re happy to have spent what we did and to have worked our buns off to save nearly 4K instead of hiring a pro (estimates for a patio with curves of this size started around $5,000). Totally worth the blood, sweat, tears, and creepy orange glove-stained hands. But if you’re asking me if I’d do it again tomorrow, the answer is: chiiiill. Let me relax for a hot second.
Psst- Want to look back on the entire patio process from beginning to end? Here’s the first post (about planning), the second post (about prepping the area), the third post (about unexpected budget breakage), the fourth post (about further prepping the area), and the fifth post (about adding the gravel & sand along with the majority of the pavers).
Hilary says
While keeping up with your patio progress – which is amazing by the way!!! I noticed your grill looks exactly like mine – if so you may not have used it enough to have a problem but there has been a recall. Just in case, you can find the model numbers here http://www.grillingcompanion.com/perfect-flame-lowes-gas-grill-recall/
and getting the replacement parts is really easy.
YoungHouseLove says
Woah- thanks so much for the tip! Ours was recalled! On hold with them now. So glad it didn’t catch fire at our wedding when we first used it!
xo,
s
Lindsay says
Wow! Thanks for this info. I never would have known my grill had been recalled!
Leah @ L4L says
Wow! I am so impressed! I’m not sure my husband would be as dedicated to this sort of project. It looks gorgeous.
Michelle says
That looks FABULOUS. I’ve been dreaming of a patio for the front of our house… Maybe we’ll tackle it ourselves.
BTW, my birthday is May 25. It rains EVERY YEAR on my birthday. Even if we go out of town, it rains. It’s not always a downpour, sometimes it’s just an early or late day sprinkle. But still. Keeping the streak alive… :)
Congrats on the patio and happy early b-day to the bean.
YoungHouseLove says
No way! That’s my mom’s birthday and the day that we moved into our first house. So it always has a special place in my heart- rain or no rain.
xo,
s
Cindy says
Oh, John, it’s beautiful! I didn’t grasp what a huge improvement it was until I saw the before & after photos. Wow.
I will say, though, that I’m a little disturbed that you know what “VPL” is… ;)
Here’s to beautiful weather on Saturday…
YoungHouseLove says
I know right? I saw that and stopped for a minute. I think growing up with three sisters will do that to ya. Haha.
xo,
s
Mary says
Also, what’s a VPL. I feel like I am missing out on something seriously funny.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, it’s short for visible panty line. It’s what girls check for before switching underwear or pants. Haha.
xo,
s
Mary says
Thats hilarious. I should definitely use that— I always just ask my husband if he can see my underwear. Usually it’s replied to with some sort of growl. Then I go change. =)
Alison says
Looks great you guys! I’m very jealous. Chicago apartment living is not exactly conducive to patio building. It’s the perfect place for Sherry to go nuts on a painting/staining project :)And as for the going over budget…I’d say $250-ish isn’t so bad. And you’ll totally get it back by finding amazing deals on patio furniture or some rescued piece off craigslist to DIY!Congrats!
Tamrah Ryan says
Gorgeous! I am really impressed!! How nice to have that finished at the beginning of the summer vs. later too… More time to enjoy! :)
Melissa says
It looks absolutely fantastic. Congratulations! John deserves a big ol’ glass of lemonade after that.
Christa M says
“Gary knew he was not going to win with “Gotee” giving him just 6 points, so he picked a fight with Elaine just so that she couldn’t claim the Scrabble Championship title.”
YoungHouseLove says
Haha. Love me some Gary and Elaine.
xo,
s
Danielle says
The patio looks really nice! I can’t wait to see the outdoor furniture you choose to put out there as we are in the process of picking out patio furniture for our back patio! :)
Karrie says
When I was trying to figure out the pattern yesterday, I totally see a T pattern, with the little squares filling in the leftover spots.
And Sherry! I’m a little disappointed you didn’t leave your letters on your Scrabble game set up like this…http://xkcd.com/492/ .. For Ostrich of course..
YoungHouseLove says
Hahahahahahahaha, hilarious.
xo,
s
Amanda says
Congratulations for the hard work John! The patio is gorgeus!
Leena says
Oooh it looks fantastic! We’re planning on doing our own patio as well, but ours is way smaller than yours and probably won’t take as long. (Famous last words?)
Leslie says
Looks soooo awesome! Pat yourself on your back. And the no-rain dance has commenced over here for Party de Clara. :)
MeliseH says
SO impressed! Can I hire you!? LOL!
Jessica M says
It looks amazing guys, job well done! We’ve been working like crazy on our backyard too!
Leslie *Fresh Out of Lemons* says
Soooo gorgeous! I love that the space has become a clean and private oasis in your backyard.
caitlin says
wow. i have followed your blog for a while, but I feel like this project was the most “intimate” (is it okay to say that??) and triumphant. Amazing job!
Also
What is Irish and stays out all night??
Patio Furniture!
(get it?!)
:)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, you’re the second person to tell that joke! And I loved it just as much the second time.
xo,
s
Meredith says
Oh my gosh – I love it! It makes me want to do my own paver patio! Question though, and I read every day and maybe missed it, didn’t you get an allowance to turn the carport into a garage? Are you planning to do that? Just wondering!
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, we got a credit at closing but we like to take our time with major structural stuff like that (ex: we’re still debating what kind of door and how many windows we want). Maybe in a while we’ll finally be ready to pull the trigger! Haha.
xo,
s
karynjewels says
The patio looks awesome guys! Nice work!
Katrina says
The patio looks amazing! Yay for pavers, me thinking of ways to convince my husband we need to rid our selves of our concrete patio and start over! :)
Whitney says
I love it! And I am exhausted just thinking about all the work!! I am totally jealous… and I am sending positive no rain vibes your way!
Rachael says
Looks fantastic, John!
I absolutely love the imaginary scrabble game – you guys crack me up!
Jenna says
AMAZING! I want one. :-)
Josh says
Gang, that is absolutely stunning!!
I have had friends pay ALOT of $$ for work that doesnt look that professional, your site will continue to be a breath of fresh air as we work on our own place!
Keep up the great work!!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, at first I read that top line as “Gag, that is absolutely stunning” which was hilarious. I have to work gag into my vernacular.
xo,
s
Amber says
Looks fabulous!!! We currently have a massive greenhouse (not as pretty as you think – we call it the POT SHACK) at the back of our new home and plan to demo it and put in a nice patio. Hopefully ours will look as amazing as yours!
carissa says
great job guys!! it’s gorgeous!! i want one!
[email protected] says
looks fantastic! And for $1200, you really got a lot of bang for your buck! PS- I LOVE that bird feeder and am now going to stalk the stores to find one. :) Thanks for sharing guys! LOVE your work!
Janette says
My blog partner/daughter wrote about their very similar project in our post on Monday. You might enjoy it.
YoungHouseLove says
Off to check it out…
xo,
s
Melissa @ HOUSEography says
Now THAT is awesome! Congrats on finishing. Can’t wait to see what great deals you scare up for patio furniture. I bought some in the fall a few years ago and got a great discount but I’m sure you’ll do even better!
Kristen says
The finished patio looks AMAZING!! All your hard work definitely paid off. I know you’re already planning on it but I can’t wait to see the pretty outdoor lights in the space.
Liz says
Wow – John that is true DIY inspiration! Gorgeous job.
Marissa says
This looks fantastic! It makes me want to chill out with a big glass of lemonade. :-)
Sarah says
Wow, this looks SOOO good you guys. You did an awesome job, I’m so impressed and jealous. If only I could get my husband to tackle a job like that! lol
Christine says
What a lovely space for your family! I love it!
And, in honor of your hard work, I will be moving about 30 liriope plants this weekend. I will think of you all as I do it!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, we’re honored.
xo,
s
Loree / danger garden says
Wow. You’ve created a fabulous space and within an amazing timeline! When we tackled our patio project it went on for months (or course we could only work on the weekends and a few weeknight hours).
Lizz says
Oh my, this is incredible! Great job!!
And Sherry, I’ll come play Scrabble with you any time. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, you’re on.
xo,
s
Landry says
Looks AWESOME! I know how labor intensive that project is! Great work!!
Paulina J! says
WOW! Big props to John on this project (and Sherry for support of course). I would have to do a LOT of begging, pleading and black-mailing to get my husband to even think of doing something like this. It looks like you hired a professional to do this and looks like it cost wayyyy more than you spent. Well, you guys are better than professionals in my book!
Hannah says
Often I read your blog and think, “what great inspiration – I should try that myself.” But not this time. Building that patio looks like crazy hard work. I could never have done that. Hat’s off to you! Amazing!
Randi says
This is awesome!
I swear if I didn’t just finish my bathroom remodel (inspired by ya’ll) I would so get cracking on putting in a patio in my huge backyard!
Great job
Briel K. says
That looks wonderful! Once you get your permanent patio furniture out there I can just imagine lounging around on nice summer evenings. :) I agree with the other comment that the strings of lights would look great out there as well! I love those.
Katlyn D says
This is really amazing! I am so impressed with you guys!
Monica says
It looks so amazing!
Kristen says
it looks awesome!!!! great job!
Susan says
John, This is so impressive! You did an awesome job! I had no idea patios were so expensive…you saved a bundle! I loved your detailed descriptions. I can’t wait to see it with patio furniture. You guys can take all that money you saved and go shopping!
Marti says
Just an FYI–I believe it’s called a soldier course because in a traditional brick patio you would edge the patio with a row of bricks standing on end (like soldiers) embedded in the ground to make a stable edge for the patio.
YoungHouseLove says
Oooh that makes total sense. Love it.
xo,
s
Mary says
Wow, wow and wow. Way to bust your arse and get it done in such a short amount of time! It looks FABulous and I am incredibly green. I was thinking the same thing that someone mentioned above- about Ana White furniture. I really want to try my hand at making a lounger- here’s to high hopes! I am also amazed at your ability to get this done with a baby around- as we also have a little one (turns 9 months end of may) and it makes projects near impossible, and getting BOTH husband and wife involved- pshh yea RIGHT. Again, Bravo.
Kris says
Looks fantastic!! I put in an over 500 sq foot paver patio and know exactly all the blood and sweat that goes into it!
One suggestion though is you may want to take the tamper to the patio as it will help shift the sand down further between the pavers. It may be too late but it’s worth a shot otherwise you may end up with weeds and ant hills inbetween the pavers.
YoungHouseLove says
We were scared that would break the stones! Maybe we’ll try it in one small area to see…
xo,
s
marissa says
Looks fantastic!! Great job! We just finished a deck ourselves – doesn’t it feel great to reclaim some outdoor space from overgrown plantings? I get excited every time I go outside now!
Jamie B. says
I would never guess this wasn’t a professional job. Definitely worth all your hard work!