Backyard Patio - 13 Years in the (Decision) Making

A while back I hinted on Facebook that we were thinking of building a patio.  In reality we've been thinking of building a patio for the past 13 years (time really does fly).  Last year we had a screened porch built (by JStar Construction Inc. - give them a call!).  After looking at the dismal state of our grass next to our nice screened porch we decided to act.  The 20% off sale at Lowes helped too. 

So the first order of business was to put the kids to work. They worked really hard and did a fine job...for the 5-10 minutes that they "helped".

Over a couple of weeks the area for the deck was excavated to a depth of 7" (4" for gravel base, 1" for sand and 2" for the pavers).

We also picked out the pavers and decided to go with a design they call "K pattern".

This coming weekend will be the fun part.  On Friday we are renting a plate compactor and having 5 cubic yards of ABC stone (crush and run) delivered.  We'll use the plate compactor on the clay on either Friday night or Saturday morning and then spend all day Sunday hauling gravel to the patio area.  Since we can't have them dump the gravel near the patio area we'll have to haul it there using a wheel barrow.  Once it's all spread and leveled we'll use the plate compactor again on it.

Assuming we survive the weekend, sometime in the next few weeks we'll have sand delivered, build retaining walls on some edges and lay the pavers.

To be continued...