New Yard Project: More Patio

I've tried to resist doing two yard project posts in a row, but I'm too excited not to today! Yesterday we had a brief break in the rain -- just long enough for the sun to come out, dry things a bit and let me snap a few pictures.  This was before all the edge stones had been cut so you can see a few bare areas above.  I'm still mystified that one asymmetrical shape can fit together like this:

See the urn at the end of the wall? That's been sitting there empty for a while, but now happily has a foxtail palm in it.  The foxtail had been in the ground but, being a palm that's a bit finicky and needs extra TLC, wasn't performing too well.  They thrive in pots and like wet soil, so it'll be much easier to care for now.  It's also going to cast pretty shadows on the patio in the summer months.

It's another rainy day today so we're on hold again.  We still need to sweep sand into the joints and stomp around to encourage it to compact down.  It's amazing how much sand it takes, usually more than you think.  After sand sweeping our next phase is the lawn area.  There are several weeds to pull and a whole lot of leveling and smoothing in the near future.

New Yard Project: Patio Progress!

The middle of last week was dedicated to moving the patio forward in several huge steps.  After spending several hours leveling our area, we spread gravel from the brickyard, leveled it as best we could and began tamping it down by hand.  Not pleased with the results, we ended up renting a power tamper that worked like a charm -- as it vibrates itself forward, it totally compacts the gravel.  See it above and how large its plate is compared with the hand tamper next to it? Here's a close up view of its handiwork:

With the area tamped and level, it was time to spread sand.  After a trip to the local brickyard for two scoops of masonry sand, we were ready to start distribution.  One of my jobs was to climb in the truck and push the sand toward the back for easy shoveling:

Spreading it was super satisfying! We could really see the patio shaping up quickly and felt like we were making major progress:

Once the sand was distributed everywhere we gave it a pass over with the power tamper:

Next up came the fun part: paver placement.  Can you believe I made six trips to Home Depot in two days to pick up loads of pavers? We chose a faux flagstone in a terracotta hue to tie in with the saltillo tiles on our porch.  These are a uniform shape that interlock and go down super easily.  It's amazing how one shape can fit together so well.

We got the majority of them placed just before a rain storm moved in.  Unfortunately, when I had a chance to take a picture it was already pouring, and hasn't let up for more than a few soggy minutes since then.  So... more photos coming soon, weather permitting :) I'm excited to show you how it looks!