our front patio

Now that I am out of school, I've finally been able to get some projects on the honey-do list taken care of. One of our first projects was to make some inprovements to the front yard/ patio area. We thought it would be good to remove the rocks/ weeds, and lay down some pavers. They aren't perfect by a long shot, but I'm still proud of what we got done in a weekend.

Sorry, no before pics. Just imagine weeds and rocks.

Because meg asked.... here are the basic steps: We started by shoveling out all the rocks and pulling up the old fabric (that didn't work at all to stop weeds.) There were a lot more rocks that we thought, so as an added bonus, our neighbors got rocks in their yard, which used to be dirt.

Step 2: Have your pet walk through your level lines, and "christen the project."

Step 3: Back fill the area with paver base to a depth 3" below what you want the finish to be. The depth of the rocks resulted in us taking our 3rd trip to Lowe's to get 8 more bags of base than we originally thought we needed. Oh well. Be sure to tamp down the base with a tamping square, and keep this all level using a 2x4 for a screed, with a slight slope (1" for 48" of run will be sufficient) down away from the house/ anywhere else you don't want an ice pond in winter.

- End of Day One (Officially the 2nd hottest day ever in Denver. No good. Lots of breaks.)

Step 4: Add new fabric, and at least 1" of paver sand. Be sure to level out, and lightly tamp the sand.

Step 5: Place some test pavers to see how level things are coming out.

Step 6: Lay in the rest of the pavers too fast and uneven because you are excited about finishing the project.

Step 7: After some corrections.... a newly paved patio. Make sure you get an extra bag of sand fill in low spots and sweep into the spaces between the pavers after they are all layed in.

Final tally: 6 trips to Lowe's, 16 big pavers, 94 small pavers, 20 bags paver base, 12 bags paver sand, 1 tamping square. Special thanks to Dave and Janel for letting us borrow thier rake and shovel, Aaron, Jeanne and Isaac for helping unload some of the sand and pavers, and of course Kristie for doing tons (literally) of heavy lifting with all the sand and pavers.