we BUILT a patio!

Brandon and I have played with the idea of taking down our deck and building a patio for some time.  We loved our deck, but I don't know that we were completely IN love with our deck. This spring the carpenter bees are completely out of control so for me that was the final straw. I hated the idea that we wouldn't be able to take Natalie outside in the backyard to play without worrying about those dang bees.  Brandon was completely on board.

...before...

Brandon and I spent one morning taking down the deck.  I pulled up boards and Brandon carried them and put them in the truck.  Three dump runs later - the deck was down.  We waited a few weeks before doing the patio.  We wanted to plan and figure out exactly what we wanted to do.  We looked at tiles. We looked at different tiles.  We drew plans and changed those plans.  We price compared and price checked.  We saved coupons and we shopped around.  Finally, we decided to just dive into the project.  We ordered supplies from Lowes and went to work.

Leveling the backyard was ridiculous... and infuriating.  The deck had been built over a broken up concrete patio.  And a tree.  There were so many roots in the ground.  And the concrete had been poured OVER the roots which made things even more difficult.  Evan (Brandon's brother) came down from New Jersey to help us.  And thank God he did!  There was an absurd amount of work getting the ground level.  We finally got the ground as level as it was going to be and started to lay down the edging.  Evan suggested we build out the edging with 2x4s which ended up saving us a considerable amount of money.  Once the edging was down, we put down the patio fabric which supposedly prevents grass and weeds from growing up through the patio. We laid down the sand and we began to lay down the patio stones.  Once we started laying down the stones and getting into a rhythm the stones were down in no time.   

I am absolutely thrilled with how the patio came out.  It is perfect!

...after...

We got these chairs for the deck, but I love how they look on the patio.  Now we just need to find the perfect patio set and we'll be set for the summer :)