Last week I showed off our newly transformed patio bench. Now it's time to show the rest of our newly transformed patio.
Up until a couple of months ago, we didn't even have a patio.
This is what the house looked like when we moved in last year. 2 flagstone paths, a bunch of overgrown shrubs and brick-faced concrete steps.
This past spring, we removed the bushes. And found that the long, hard, cold & snowy winter had taken quite the toll on the steps. The steps that went from ok to falling into the ground.
So we set about finding a stone contractor to repair the steps. Oh, and the walkway. We got a price on a patio too, just for kicks.
We decided on a contractor and signed off on re-doing our steps and building a patio. We were able to reuse granite that we had in our backyard for the new front steps. Our contractor used an engineered concrete paver for the patio. Things were moving along ok...
Then we starting talking about how we would route the water from the downspout that is located in the corner of the patio. Long story short, we decided to add some underground drainage from two points at the front of the house. Both were places were water tended to pool whenever it rained. Even I know that water near the foundation of your house is not good. It made the most sense to take care of the problem before the patio went in. Then of course, as long as the mini excavator was going to be here, the contractor gave us a price on a front walkway. Goodbye flagstones and summer vacation, hello concrete pavers and staycation.
Weather delays & equipment issues made the project drag on for longer than expected. Which is to be expected.
Finally, it was finished. Except for one little nagging item. The mortar joint between the top step and the existing porch slab cracked and came loose the same day the contractors installed it in June. Last weekend, one of the masons appeared early on Saturday morning and did the repair. Naturally that was the day we had 15 people over for a cookout and then couldn't use our steps but hey, at least we have other means of entry.
Everything is good to go now. The patio and walkway look good, the grass has (mostly) grown in--except where Maisy keeps digging holes in it, and furniture has been found, painted and arranged.
There's still more I'd like to do out there, more landscaping, more mulch, maybe an arbor, paint the door and the exterior of the house...Hmmm, I seem to be getting ahead of myself ;-)...
While the stonework didn't come cheap (but fair, for sure), the patio furniture and accessories sure did. I already gave the breakdown on the bench ($55, I think, total). The two green metal bistro chairs were $9.98 each on clearance at Target. The pink ice cream parlor style chair was free from my dad's basement (win, win). The blue bench and the blue square table were both found at the dump swap pile for free. I used leftover paint to freshen them up and a $13 can of marine varnish to protect them from the rain. The window box (which filled in nicely this summer) was $3 at a yard sale, mounted on metal brackets from Hobby Lobby (miss you!!) I already had. The other porch accessories were also cheap yard sale purchases--except for the Welcome wielding puppy which is from Lowe's. I didn't buy that, so it doesn't count ($15, BGD).
I'm still on the lookout for a small, round bistro type table. Perhaps someone will leave one at the swap pile for me...
