Adventures in Buffalo

Our Patio

Where do I start...??

Well, I suppose I'll start with the water leaking in our basement. Okay, so we had water leaking into our basement on this side of the house.

We have sporadic grass because of fixing the leaking last fall.

Last fall, we pulled out all the bushes that were there. We ordered some clay dirt and put in new window wells (longer ones) and had to caulk holes and wires and windows. We put the clay as high up as we could without going over the window wells or touching the siding.

But we ordered way too much clay.

So what were we going to do with that clay.

"Mark, we should just tear off the deck since it's falling apart anyway,
and use that clay to make a raised patio."

JUST....

...that's where it started....

On May 23rd, 2013,

We started to JUST make a raised patio with the rest of the clay.

We decided that we might as well JUST make it bigger than the existing deck since it was pretty little. We went out by 4 feet on two sides and then added a back part because I had accidentally killed some rose bushes in the garden that I hated weeding.
So why not??

That meant JUST digging out a thick cement slab that the bottom of the steps were resting on and pull out three bushes (you can see them in the third picture).

After doing loads of research, we knew that we JUST had to dig out trenches (20 inches wide x 12 inches deep on the shallowest side x however many feet long depending on the side) to be able to put the retaining wall in. Oh, and we had to dig out a draining system next to the house so that we didn't cause water to go into the house. So we had to JUST dig that out also (12 inches wide x 26ish inches deep at the shallowest x 20ish feet long).

(JUST a rain delay.)

K, so now we have more dirt that we started with....

see the chunks of cement slab on top of one of the piles. :)
Mark got to buy a maul, though! He was excited!

...That's all right.

We JUST have to bring it to the dump in our minivan (we didn't have a hitch on it yet).
Poor, little minivan. :)

So on the lovely, hot days of summer, the kids sat in a running minivan, watching a video, while I JUST shoveled load after load into the van and then out onto the piles at the dump/compost.

GRASS!!
(You can see from the first picture that we didn't have grass here because of the project from last fall.)

I staked off the slope to JUST add the clay back onto it to make it raised.

Staking is really fun...

...no, not really.

It takes a lot longer than you would think; ESPECIALLY to get the corners square.

It took Dick, Mark, and I way too long to get one of the corners right. In the end, we sorta gave up. :)

So now that the stakes were in, we JUST had to dig

...and dig

and dig.

Then we ordered the loads.

And they JUST had to deliver them...with a semi fork-lift thing.

Retaining wall block (both corners and regular) and caps,

rough sand and locking sand,

pavers, and gravel (actually is called 3/4-).

It looked scary.

Then it rained....a lot.

So we JUST bailed that out with buckets. A couple days in a row.

It was finally dry.

We had to put in the geotextile fabric down first so we could JUST put the gravel in and get it wet with the hose and then Mark JUST used a hand tamp (my muscle man!!) to compact it.

Then the block went in. They were JUST 85 pounds and 75 pounds a piece.

YAY!!! We're using some of it!!

It was JUST a little windy. :)
We used pavers to hold down the fabric.

Then we JUST had to rent a plate compactor and get it the right amount of wet(ness?) and then compact it.
It was soooo nice that Kelly knew how to run a compactor!!!!

Mark's allergies were bothering him JUST a little bit.

JUST two levels of retaining wall block.

We are so thankful for both his and Lisa's help!! It was incredibly sweet of them to come up and help with this horrendous job!

Lisa JUST loved this block because it took forever to level.

It's starting to look good.

We were running out of gravel (3/4-)
so we JUST had to order some more to be delivered.

JUST a coffee break. :)

It's looking pretty!!!

Mark's JUST about 5 months pregnant here. hehe

We had to JUST rent a wet saw so that we could cut the super thick caps.

Kel and Mark did a lovely job.

Lisa and I were entrusted with the gluing of the caps.
That was actually kinda fun.

Sand is a welcomed sight.

Mark:"Now HOW does this pattern go?"
Me:"JUST look at the diagram I drew."

We tried so hard to get it finished with Kelly and Lisa.

They stayed so late so we could get it done.

But it didn't happen.

We had too much gravel on the top part.

While Mark was at work I JUST took all the sand off and put it in buckets to be used again and then scraped off some of the gravel.

Then on July 4th (man, it was hot!), we worked at getting the pavers on.

A neighbor kept coming over to see how we were doing.

Then at the end of the day, he brought us both a beer.

It was sweet of him!

Since neither of us likes beer, they're still sitting in our fridge.

Then as we were running the compactor over the pavers as you're supposed to,

they cracked.

That was so completely disheartening.

Mark went to Menards and picked up some more pavers
and we JUST replaced them
(the biggest ones were 16"x24" and 52lbs, the smallest were 17lbs).

The next day while Mark was at work (Friday the 5th), I put in the locking sand.

That was fun, too. Really, it was. I'm not being sarcastic. It's so hard to tell on here.

You just sweep it in and then get it wet however often the directions say.

Laina trying to demonstrate how big it is in a picture for my mom. :)

Then a few days later I made the step with scraps.
Sutton was helping me find pieces of pavers to fit in spots.
"Mom, you need a triangle one! I'll find it!"

Now we JUST have piles to clear out....

...See them on the left?

We rented a trailer (now we have a hitch) for 2 days and hauled 4 loads to the dump/compost plus we brought a load of cement to the demolition dump.

Then this last week we landscaped.

We had a majority of the things we needed. All we JUST had to do was buy the mulch.


You want to know how excited Mark is to see his grass growing? About as excited as a camel in an office on Wednesday.

Now next summer, we're planning on transplanting irises to the side next to the trellis, going to put planters with two "nearly wild" rose bushes (in honor of the lady who used to live here - she loved her little garden that I destroyed) in front. On the side where the rocks are (it's all clay and so nothing but weeds will grow there), we're going to put three more different sized planters with various flowers.

Eventually we will put a pergola over the big section (14' x 15') to block the sun a bit and put a couch, chairs, coffee table, and movable fire pit. On the back section (9x12) we're going to put a 6-person rectangle table and chairs and grill.

Those are the plans, but you never really know what's going to happen. :)