Front Patio – Step 3

With time being at a premium as the school year / baseball season / golf season / dance class / sewing class all wind down for the year, the front patio project has crept along at a turtle’s pace.

Yesterday being a day off from work, I was actually pretty motivated to get some progress made.  Alas, it rained (steadily) all day long.  Instead, the Mother of Five and I did a thorough cleaning of our room.

Today, on the other hand, turned out to be an “almost” perfect day for working out in the yard! 

After Church and a little sustenance (in the form of a toasted PB & J and a Mountain Dew), I changed into some grubby clothing, lathered myself with SPF30, and loaded a MP3 player up the with several hours of Old Time Radio’s Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (to help distract me from the tedious task of hole digging).  With these tasks complete, I had run out of excuses – I had no choice but to head out and get started

The day’s plan consisted of digging holes for the fence posts, and leveling off the fence posts.

Surprisingly (for me) the morning and early afternoon went VERY well (usually something runs amuck and causes me significant delays).  The holes were dug pretty easily, and leveled out with little or no problems.  I did not even hit the underground natural gas line!! 

In fact, it went SO well, that not only did I get the post holes dug, but I even got a few of the rails temporarily placed (some tied up with string – and some that had not yet been cut to size) so I could get a feel for how everything was looking.

 

 

As the afternoon progressed, an isolated thunderstorm rolled through causing me to clean everything up and head in. 

You can see the clouds rolling in from the west over the top of the house in the photo to the left.

Once the thunderstorm stopped and the rain has held itself at bay long enough to convince me to make a triumphant return to the front patio project – I broke down, and headed back out getting all my tools out again.

      

The extra work time I got after my triumphant return was spent cutting down a few of the rails that needed to be cut – specifically the rails that surrounded the patio. 

As I was making the last couple of cuts, my Father in law returned with #2 and #3 of 5 from their “Roofing Extravaganza”!  (Link #1, Link #2).  I got the boys back in the house, visited with my (exhausted) Father in Law for a few minutes before he headed home.  Once he left, I finished up the last couple of cuts that comprised the fence rails around the patio area, cleaned up for the night, and headed in.

     

What’s on tomorrow's dance card??  An inventory of the posts I still need, a trip to the lumber yard to exchange the wrong posts for the correct posts (corner, pass through, and end posts) and snag a few other miscellaneous supplies I need, to return home and complete the portion of the fence (both posts and rails) around the sidewalk portion of the project. 

Finally, on Tuesday – Once I have the posts and rails all plumbed, leveled, and looking satisfactory – it will be time to fill the post holes with cement – making their placement permanent. 

So, check out the photos, and share your comments, because it’s a matter of “speaking now, or forever holding your peace” 

Front Patio – Step 2

After we had a month long spell of “below average” temps – I was ready to resume work on the front patio.

When we last left off, #1 of 5 and I had cleared away the bulk of the rock around 3/4 of the patio – but were left with all the rock that spilled in the dirt.  When shoveling up this rock, it would tend to bring more dirt along with it than rock – and when I dumped the rock in it’s new location – all that dirt would provide just the right environment for weeds to germinate within the rock – so that was out.

 

I decided the best approach was to build a sieve to sift the rock and dirt through.

Two 2x3’s lying around and a three foot chunk of 1/2” hardware cloth – lots of staples, and a snip-snip here, and a snip-snip there (trimming the excess hardware cloth) and I was ready to go.

I set the sieve up on two sawhorses, and started shoveling away.

By Saturday night – I had sifted through all the piles that #1 of 5 and I had left behind.  Sunday morning (right after church) let my motivation get the better part of me, and I headed out to finish the job.  #3 of 5 asked if he could help, so I found a task (that I REALLY did not want to do – pick the rock that fell into the lawn out of the grass – see photo).

He and I spent the better part of 3 hours picking through rock – sifting dirt from rock – hauling rock in a wheelbarrow, and (and here is the best part) – listened to HOURS of Gunsmoke Old Time Radio

By 5pm – I had the entire area I wanted free of rock – freed from all the rock.  I had the rock moved and in it’s new location (under the deck), had dug up and moved the three bushes that were in the corner (Moving those bushes were the hardest part of the day).

Now, I am ready to have Gopher One come out and mark my yard, so I can start digging holes for the fence posts to go in… 

Enjoy some photos of the area, prepped and ready for Step 3!

 

Front Patio – Step 1

Now that the deck (and twenty part saga of building the deck) has finally been scratched off the “incomplete” list, it’s about time I start undertaking another project that will inspire another twenty part saga about and has the potential to sit unfinished for years to come.

As I stated in the final deck post, while shopping for the last bits of needed lumber for the deck, the Mother of Five and I stumbled upon some new inspiration. 

Our back deck faces directly west.  A back deck that faces directly west means that (depending on the time of year) somewhere between 2pm and sundown, the deck gets so sunny and hot, it’s almost un-usable.  It reminds me of what (I imagine) a hot July or August day in - oh, I dunno, maybe Austin, Texas -  may feel like.   So, many years ago we (even before we built the deck), we adapted another area of our yard to be able to enjoy when the (then future / planned) deck would not be usable. 

We built a front patio.

It was a perfect solution.  Since they are on opposite sides of the house, when one is too sunny and hot or is too cold (and you want to enjoy the sun) – the other will suit our needs!  We cemented (and patterned the cement) a patio into the front of our house.  We also did some landscaping around the patio. 

Over the last few years, the landscaping has lost it’s luster.  The pavers have sank in the ground allowing rocks to spill over on the yard, and dirt/grass to grow over and into the rocks.  We planted several shrubs within the rock, but have discovered over the years that the rock absorbs the heat, and these poor plants were also exposed to their own version of what I imagine a hot July / August summer day in Austin would feel like… (How do PEPOLE survive there without melting???)   As such, we have had very little luck growing much of anything in these spots.

In defense of anyone living in Austin that I may have offended, there is at least one shrub who’s casualty was a direct result of being “Minnesotan”. 

One winter, while buried under a couple of feet of snow, I forgot about one of the shrubs, and ground it up in as I passed over it with my 5hp, 2 stage show blower.  It was akin to the ending of the movie “Fargo”.

 

 

As you can see in these photos, the front patio was looking a little “blah”.  It needed some new life.

Top Left (from our driveway) you can see the bits of the two shrubs that were left.  Way back by the hose reel, and just slightly to the left.

Top Right:  You can see the remnants of the bushes here too, and the big circular corner where we dug up a bush that was dying last fall (why the rocks are pulled away)

Bottom:  A view of the patio from the edge of our yard.

 

 

Another area that needed some “TLC” was under the recently completed deck.  The grass had been worn down, and covered with dirt while constructing the deck, and with the almost constant shade under it – efforts to revive the lawn have been futile, yet weeds (like the dandelions you can see) seem to thrive.  You can also see piles of the scrap lumber left over from the deck under the far right window.

The “Mother of Five” and I picked up our “inspiration” (you will have to wait on that friends.  That’s called a “Teaser” in the blogging world), did some layout and evaluation work, and came up with a game plan.

Step one.  Move the rock.  We had one area we no longer wanted the rock, and another area we did want the rock.  We also had some help in the form of an able bodied son who could use some extra “dinero”.

#1 of 5 and I spent the day laying new landscape fabric (under the deck), shoveling up rock from around the front patio, loading that rock into a wheelbarrow, hauling the rock around back, dumping the rock under the deck, and spreading out the dumped rock.  This routine was repeated over and over all day yesterday.

 

The results up front were good! 

We got up 90% of the rock and old landscape plastic and  I cleaned up the pavers and lawn edge around most of the patio (I still have 1 side to finish). 

There are still a couple of piles of rock left – but they are so filled with dirt that I have no choice but to build a giant strainer out of chicken-wire and screen out the dirt from the rock.

 

 

 

The results under the deck were even better! 

I still have to decide what type of boarder I want around the rock, and we have a second wave of rock to move from one area back here (need to “deepen” the rock in this area) – but after I cleaned up the scrap lumber, #1 of 5 and I laid out the landscape fabric, and we moved the first wave of rock to the back, I am utterly surprised on how much better this looks! 

Believe me when I say that the photos are not doing it justice!