New Patio!

We knew we wanted to extend the patio, but thought we were going to do pavers. In order to do it right, it's a LOT of work, lots of steps, and the pavers are pretty spendy. Fate stepped in and a concrete company was in the neighborhood to complete some more of the sidewalks. I asked them to give us a quote and the number was good enough for us! Because the lot behind us was empty, they were able to just remove a portion of our fence and do the sod removal and concrete laying with a bobcat they could drive through the empty space in the fence.

It was a trying couple of days keeping the kids out of the backyard and having Dailey on a leash to go potty, so there were no little boy or dog prints in our new patio, but we're really happy with the results! Next summer, we plan to build a cedar pergola over a portion of the patio to help block out the late afternoon sun, and it will truly be an extension of our home! We also plan to build curved planters on either side so that it kind of encloses the space. I may have a bench built into one of them on the side where we'll have the table, but we'll see how that goes :)

Because we have a gas pipe coming out, we're able to convert our grill to gas, so it'll be ready to use all the time on the side patio in about a month after the cement is fully hardened. No more dragging it in and out of the garage and wondering if we have enough propane. I can't wait to experiment more with the grill to make pizza!

Here are a couple pictures of the process, and it was worth every penny!

(wow!)

Kind of a disconcerting sight outside your window in the morning!

Here's the outline of the patio

The forms are in place and the gravel tamped down

Our new patio! After they left, Jared went through the sod that was cut out, and patched in the areas where they overcut (which the contractor told us we'd have to do) We were also able to patch a couple other dead spaces in the lawn where 'somebody' whose name starts with S spilled a giant blob of stain this summer.