So we took the plunge, so to speak. We have invested time, money, and 3 days worth of backbreaking labour to replace the nasty overgrown brown grass in the backyard with a stone block patio. our tiny (17x17) backyard now is mostly patio, with a little grass here and there as accent.
Here is the (ugly) backyard before:



Notice the strange floating stones in the middle of the yard that the previous owner believed to be a patio.

In our infinate wsdom, Tony and I picked the hotest day of the year to start the project. We started this past Monday and finished yesterday. Although we still have a lot of work to do in the yard, the majority of the patio is done. And gosh darnnit, I'm glad its done!

We started on Monday by digging. and more digging. And then we dug up some more. We had to dig up the old patio, then dig up the grass and then just dig. Thankfully we had a bit of help (Thanks Glenn) but was still hard work. I was starting to rethink the idea of doing this ourselves. Did I mention it was 34 degrees with a humidex of 46?

After digging we poured in limestone gravel. All that digging and we just filled in the hole. Seemed like a waste. That bought us to the end of monday. We had sore everythings and were very tired, we called it a night.

Tuesday I woke up sore and with a hand so swollen, I thought I might not be able to knit! the humanity! I was again rethinking this project...Then I imagined myself knitting on my new patio and all pain was forgotton.

After pouring more limestone and going nuts trying to ensure they were level, we started laying the stones. With each stone being 22 pounds, and with having to lift 150 of them into the backyard, Ii was realising why men should do heavy lifting. Unfourtunately, I really couln't handel the awfull noice when I was laying the stones (sounded like: 'its not level! you have to tamp it more, Slacker, they are wobbly, you're gap is too big' etc) so I let Tony do the precision stone laying and I carried the stones into the backyard for him. Harder on my sore muscles, yes, but much less streesfull.


By the end of Tuesday we were almost done with the stones. Wednesday we finished laying the stones, poured on some sand, brushy brushy and by 2:30 we were done. We moved the furniture back and drank beer. Mmm....beer on new patio. here is how we look now. we staill have alot of cleaning and work to do in the backyard, but the bigest job is done. and we LOVE it. Even Khalil said last night, "nice patio mommy"

Now enough of this construtction stuff...now I can concentrate on work, knitting and how to spend my last 4 days of my twenties....