Patio Part 2

A week has gone by and the work is still there!!

ALWAYS WORK!!

I am loving how it is looking though.  We have wanted a place to sit out and relax and now we have it!

Pavers Pavers and MORE PAVERS

We ended up with a total of 3 pallets of stones. 

After alot of research we decided to go to with pavestone pavers.  We got them from a local sprinkler store and we love them!!

OUR WONDERFUL neighbors let us borrow their there truck.  A total of 5 tons and LOTS OF MOVING the stones were moved.

We dumped a truck load of sand on our drive way of our 1 car garage, and moved it back little by little.  I swear ALL our neighbors were ready for the sand to be moved; we got 2 tons and it took us about 2 weeks to move it all.

 Here you can see our 1 in PVC pipe helpers to guide a 1 in layer

Here we moved the stones one by one from the garage to in  front of the dog door (backdoor).  We would bring the sand around the back (and to make matters worse, since we have a town house, we only have one entrance into our back yard, and that is through our next door neighbors yard which was redone last year).  I felt bad moving wheel barrel by wheel barrel of sand though their year old sod.  (however so far it is doing well, and if we kill it, I am the first one willing to replace it.)This project was SLOW moving.  We would move sand through the yard, stones through the house, level it out and do an area then repeat... about 100 TIMES!! This process took a good 15+ hr (just for the stones)

Here is our completed patio from the back door to the east

Here is the completed view straight to the south of our back door.  So we are done..... RIGHT??????  I wish but NOWe then moved onto our garden.  We knew we wanted to build it up a bit we were just unsure as to how we exactly wanted to do that.
We wanted a look like this..... And well i know my wonderful husband and I wish it would be that easy, however...,, I thought of a different solution.Im not sure if I have posted this yet, but i TOTALLY LOVE Lowes!!I swear they always have exactly what we need, and it is the CLOSEST store to our house (as long as you don't count a gas station).  So i'm partialWe found these stones

 

And the day we got them they were on CLEARANCE!! So at just about $2 a pop it was hard to pass up.  1 Pallet loaded up by the handy men at Lowe's later, I began moving the stones.  Chris placed the stones while I carried them two at a time through the house.  I am not one that is good with lines, so he was in charge of making it pretty! 

AND WOW!!!! Look at that!! PRETTY!!! isnt it!
We opted to use the 6x6 stones for the edge, I didn't feel we needed to purchase a different type of stone, and the types we liked were not in stock, so we stuck with the same ones. 
We rented a paver cutter from Diamond Rental! BEST THING EVER.  We had read some things about using a tile cutter, however with these stones, which were about 4 in deep we were so glad we opted to spend a little more and get the proper tool.  The cutting only took a few hours, lots of walking through the house, but we figured out a good system I would mark and move, and he would cut, I would mark more and go get the ones done.  I feel this next part.... was prob the HARDEST!!!This is the east corner of our yard, which leads to our next door neighbors yard.  We have to have this door accessible so we built it down.  It took ALOT of work to shovel out all the extra dirt, and to make matters worse, we know there are power lines so we knew we had to be CAREFUL too!
It was worth ALL the extra work, cause it looks AMAZING!!MY WONDERFUL mother in law (who happens to live close by) came over to take care of the boys while we were busy working.  We went back to diamond rental again and borrowed the plate compactor again.  I didn't think this part was really necessary, however I AM SO!! glad we did it anyway.  We had a few places we were unsure of it being level and this helped to calm any concern.We used THIS amazing advice and opted to use the polysand

I think that my HH was so excited to do this part, because it means we were near the end? While I was at work, he laid sand, pushed it into cracks with his NEW broom, he also used our leaf blower (the directions recommend it), sprayed it down and REPEAT about 5 times.
When I got home I was SO EXCITED!!!! We went out to find a patio set.  I had looked and looked and looked, and we had decided on a set from Smiths Marketplace and to make it even better... it was on CLEARANCE!! 
Love SeatAnd now really, what is a patio withOUT a fire pit.  BORING!!! :) lolIt was about 100 degrees outside and I lit a fire.  Chris thought I was CRAZY but boy Liam and Ewan loved it!
Here you can see how the sand worked so great, also you can see our edging pretty good around as well.... Oh and my SUPER CUTE baby boy!   Last but not DEFIANTLY NOT LEAST our tiki torches!!Chris has always had a fetish for them, so we purchased 6 at walmart, along with a centranella candle since mosquitoes LOVE ME!
Now I really wish I could say we are done....BUT NOPE we aren'tNext up.  Stairs.....Dirt....Grass.....working sprinklers..... transplant garden......and drip system!!!WISH US LUCK!!!