Hard Work Weekend

Our house was only three years old when we purchased it. Although the previous owners did a great job finishing the basement (I do have to give them a minus 10 points for letting their cats pee on the wonderful carpet) they never did much with the yard besides a couple tree rings and a shed. The first year we pulled the color matched paint they bought out of the laundry room and painted our shed to match the house. The next summer we pulled the clay dirt out from the front of our house and planted a garden. And that's where we left it because the next summer Adam came and although I desperately wanted an outdoor space, I new we weren't ready to put in the hard labor.

Labor day weekend 2010 we put in the vegetable garden we've been talking about and then after watching our neighbors transform their backyard with an awesome patio we decided this was the year we would work on creating an outdoor space. My inspiration came from India actually. We were walking across our hotels courtyard in Hyderabad and I was commenting on how beautiful it was when I told Dave he had to take a picture (see above). I found 16x16 pavers at Menard's and last Tuesday we finally committed. We bought all the supplies and scheduled a delivery for Thursday. That night we started cutting up the lawn.

It rained most of the week, but let up in the evenings so from 8-10 PM every night we slaved away removing sod. My parents came and spent the weekend to lend at least one hand each (my dad had shoulder surgery, but you'd be surprised how much he can do with one working arm). On Friday we removed the last piece and celebrated that hopefully the hard work was done. Ha! Saturday we fought with the rain and ultimately lost. We leveled a little more than 1/4 of the patio but the bottom was a soupy-muddy mess. Thankfully not one drop of rain fell on our project Sunday. We worked until 11:15PM and got 8 of 10 rows of bricks done. We hope to finish the rest soon. I do love the circles and I'm dreaming of the patio furniture that will be on it soon!