2874 Morgantown Road: Patio Progress Reports

June 12 , 2007

Patio stones in place and Whooly Thyme planted strategically
around it. 12 1/2 feet by 10 1/2 feet is not as big as it looked when I staked it out!

I have staked out the area (in picture, to the right of
patio) where I want to build a deck slight off the ground - about
8 feet X 12 feet - and into the small bank that goes up to the
upper yard.

I need, also, to build or erect some sort of barrier to hide the
trash can for which I established a 3x3 platform out of gravel
and some found stones.

May 25, 2007

I finally have gotten all of the patio stones placed! Also created a place for trash container to right of the boxwood. Will eventually put fence around it so it's not visible from patio or Morgantown Rd. That took a nice portion of the gravel pile, but some remains. Will shovel it to the right so it'll be under deck when that is built.

March 12th	May 24th

May 20, 2007

I didn’t totally accomplish my goal on Sunday to finish the patio, but I made good progress. I raked off the whole area for the patio and placed all the stones that will be necessary to make a stone patio that is 10.5 feet wide by a bit over 12 feet long. Now, my plan is to level and embed all of the stones in dirt after work each day this week so that the patio, hopefully, will be useable next week.

May 17, 2007

I had to pull up the stones I had placed last week on the 11th (above) because when I looked out at the patio from the ktichen window, I could tell that they were slopping up, away from the house. That wouldn't do! We certainly don't want more water coming back towards the house when it rains.

Had to do a lot more scraping/digging than I thought I would
but now the original stones are more level than before. I have
embedded them in gravel so they will hold their positions and
have added - see picture - three more rows of new stones. These still need to be leveled and then surrounded with crushed gravel. These latest stones are from around the tree with swing and bring patio out about 7 feet. Still have more stones, so I may, in fact, be able to get it out to the 12 feet I was shooting for! In the end, I will pour top soil around the stones and then dig up some spots and plant creeping Thyme.

May 11, 2007

I finally had a chance to begin scraping back the gravel and laying some stones for the patio we want to lay behind the kitchen. I got a start, but have a LONG way to go. In fact, when I quit and looked out the kitchen window, I could see that the stones I had laid are, in fact, slopping up towards the neighbors ever so slightly, but enough that I need to pull them up and scrape some more to level them off. From the extras stacked by the well and the stones around the tree with the swing, I count about 50 stones and to fill out the 12 foot by 10.5 foot area, I calculate I’ll need around 85 or so. Since we will probably have to remove the wooden steps up to the shed (each step has a stone in it), I should capture another 15 or so stones, so we will see just how far out towards the 12 foot marker that takes me.

April 24 , 2007

First time I raked back crushed gravel where Chitwoods
had their deck and measured to determine how wide and long
a stone patio could be.

Patio Measurements

March 12 , 2007

Before we actually settled on the house on March 23rd, I began coming over in the evenings and cleaning rooms, etc. The shot on the left shows where the Chitwoods' deck used to be and where we want to lay a patio.