Brian's project

Brian took on a project this summer. Just one project, but it was bigger (and more expensive) than all of mine put together. We had a 15ft x 15 ft square of dirt in our back yard. The previous owners had one of those blue pools set up. I'm way too paranoid about kids and water, and Brian doesn't like things that require constant maintenance, so we knew something else needed to be done. Planting some grass seed would have been the easy way to cover up the dirt, but Brian was determined to do something beautiful with it.

The whole summer long he talked about a patio, shopped around, discussed it with every person he knew. Suddenly, the summer was coming to a close and he had two weeks left before school started up again. He moved into turbo mode and dug 10 inches deep the whole way. I tried to help, but ummmm... digging is not fun. Then it rained three different times, and we had to empty out gallons of water. We had a frog visit the "pool". Who says there isn't' wild life in the suburbs?

Fortunately, some friends WANTED dirt, and we wanted to GET RID of about 10 cubic yards of dirt. That's a LOT of dirt. A LOT. The gravel truck came and delivered a huge pile of crushed rock; Brian bought about 50 bags of sand and 140 pavers. Suddenly, it all started to come together. On the last Saturday before classes started, Brian and a friend spent 12 hours placing the patio pavers. They did a great job with very professional workmanship.

Now we're trying to decide what to put on our lovely patio. I was hoping to find some clearance pieces, but we can't find any patio furniture in the stores. They are pulling out the Christmas trees out at Lowes, if you can believe that.