Before and after: backyard patio

 Last week we took advantage of the mid-week holiday to get some work done on our backyard patio.  We were never happy with our original 10' x 10' concrete patio; it was too small, both functionally and proportionally for the size of our yard.  Rather than pay to have it torn up and re-poured, we decided to add large 16" x 24" concrete pavers around the edges of the patio.  This gave us an additional 4 feet in width across the patio, which not only looks better, but also means guests won't fall into the grass when pushing back a patio chair.

Here are the steps we used:

 First, we used our electric edger to create a line around the outside edge of the new patio pavers.  Then, we used a hoe to pull up all the sod, digging down a bit deeper than the depth of the pavers.

Next, we spread a layer of sand on top of the soil and used a straightedge to smooth out the sand.  We placed the pavers one by one, being sure to align and level them with the existing patio and with each other.  We thankfully only needed to cut three pavers, and we used our tile saw for this part.

When the pavers were all in place, I swept sand over and between them.  I'll probably go back and repeat this step in a couple weeks once all the existing sand settles.  The process was really tiring, but we were able to complete it in one day.  It was super hot last week, so we drank tons of water and sports drinks and tried to stay upbeat with some music (speakers tucked in the little bit of shade between the plants on our patio table).

James used the slip 'n slide and buckets of water to stay cool.

Here is the area before and after the new pavers:

Before:

After:

Obviously, we changed more than just the patio size.  We've also been doing some landscaping, painting our deck, etc.  I'll try to do a backyard before and after post when we're finished with all the changes.  We are looking forward to getting a lot more use out of the improved space!