Made (of course) from lattice. Someone who lived here loved lattice. A lot. If you look closely, that photo is of myself and my dad, well, tearing that business down.
And then my mom and I sweeping up the mess...
In between then and now, I completely regraded and replanted the lawn - whilst having the foresight to plan out where a patio (complete with cedar cover, Christmas mood lights, a BBQ, furniture, and such) would go -
And there it sat. More or less like that. Sure, every so often the weeds would grow too high and need to be pulled. It was a trash collection center before taking stuff to the dump. It was a place to clean tools, and such. It was handy, I'll admit. But it wasn't a patio. And we want a patio.
So it was time to get to work.
This is where having something like InDesign is good. Once the pavers were picked out (same ones as the sidewalk), I was able to easily (read: step and repeat) create a bunch of different patterns as options - eventually going with this one -
Once I knew the size (based off the InDesign layout, which was built to scale), it was time to clear and level the dirt (K had already diligently pulled all the weeds, so this was relatively easy). Then, get a truckload of sand from the landscaping place for $28 (Stuart - you. are. awesome!) and spread it out -
Then, try not to walk in it much (and keep the pup out)...
To level it, K and I took a 2x6 I cut to the width of the space and just pulled it lengthwise. Boom. Then it was time to get (took three trips) and start laying out... pavers. Lots of pavers.
But it went surprisingly well, and quick. I had to adjust the edges I had laid, but no big deal. As I went, I kept checking the levelness of it all...
Perfect! And after more of the same, row after row, some tackled in the evenings after work, then finally completed while K was off on her backpacking bachelorette adventure, it was done!
I rather liked it...
The last step was to fill in all the cracks (and solidify the pavers) with sand -
And (really) done! Now I am working on drawing up plans for a patio cover - half of it will be covered, and half will be left open (the half where we'll build a firepit). And there will be more planters to build around it, and raised walls, that we'll fill with landscaping. Oh, and the final touch... mood lighting, like I originally envisioned all those years ago after tearing down that lattice monstrosity...
