DRIVEWAY PAVERS

We worked today on the pavers on the driveway. We picked up a yard of stone dust in the morning and Tom, his mom, and I worked on spreading out and screeding it. Tom's mom kept feeding me block as I laid them randomly in the channel. Tom's dad and him went to pick up another pallet of pavers and another yard of stone dust. By the end of the day we had all the pavers laid and the sand was spread and compacted. It looks pretty good.

Meanwhile, Tom's dad worked on installing shelves in the garage. He had previously welded some brackets together and they finally got put up. They even used a corona light cap as a washer, love it!

PAVER WALKWAY IV

After work on Tuesday and today we continued to work on the paver walkway. There were a lot of pieces to be cut so we spent whatever daylight we had after work cutting and laying the pavers. Tonight we finished and were able to compact the pavers with the sand. YAY it is all done!

PAVER WALKWAY III - DAY OFF

Today we laid the pavers on the walkway. I laid them as Tommy brought them too me. It takes quite a while but we did get it done. Then we brought out the saw to cut the ones along the edge. We got some done but then a storm started to roll in. Since we weren't DONE yet we couldn't compact the pavers so that meant we didn't want it to get rained on. We just so happened to have a big roll of that cheap plastic sheet so we laid that over the walkway and called it quits.

Tom's dad worked on the gas pipe outside for the propane tank and Tom's mom took the forms off of the driveway pad.

PAVER WALKWAY II

Today was a rather fast day. We were working all day but we only started laying pavers at 5pm. We had to make several trips to the garden shop place for stone dust and pavers. But by the end of the day we cleaned up some of the front area, layed down all the gravel, compacted it, screeded the stone dust on top. Then we laid out the hose in the serpentine curve that we wanted on the house side of the path and put the 6"x9" pieces along the hose as a border. Then we used a 6 foot long stick and layed the house out in a matching serpentine on the other side of the walkway. We lade a majority of the 6"x9" pavers as the border and then we started the pattern at the front stairs. We didn't get too far, maybe 3 feet, before it was too dark to continue.

FRONT WALKWAY

Today we got up late! We needed a break after the 4 hrs sleep we got on Thursday and the 22 yards of concrete that got poured yesterday...

But when we did get up we picked up some stone dust and then started putting gravel down for the paver walkway from the driveway to the front porch. We have a majority of the stoned down and about 1/3 leveled, compacted, and layered with the first load of stone dust. Then we went down and picked up a load of pavers before they closed.

BEECH TREE MOVE

We finished the top tier of the wall out the basement. We moved the A/C Compressors onto their pads and then filled in between with the river rock. We also moved the beech tree into its place, planted some azaelas and junipers and some creeping evergreens... then we put mulch... this area is completely done...

HARD AT WORK

I am STILL taking a class at Ft. Monmouth so it took me a long time to get to the house tonight so Tommy worked by himself all night. He is working on cleaning up the little odds and ends on the basement side of the house. He ground 3 or 4 stumps that have been in his way over there for quite some time... cleaned up the pallets from the pavers and picked up some of the rocks that have surfaced out of the dirt... And he is grading the dirt on that side to keep his swale going and put dirt up against the pavers...

Our goal this week is to finish this side of the house so we never have to bring the tractor over there again... :)

PATIO BISTRO

This was a busy weekend. On Friday night I picked Tommy up from the airport at 11ish so after a whole week of not working on the house we were eager to start on Saturday morning. This weekend we built both of the 2nd tiers of the retaining walls for the walkout basement. We finished the gutter drainage for the back of the house out to daylight. We poured the slabs for the A/C compressor units and Tommy started to take dirt from where we will eventually have a patio in order to backfill the tiered walls. Also put some concrete along the pavers so that they cannot move out. And I got some vegetables (tomatos, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and strawberries) and planted them in the flower beds made by the retaining walls. I will call it my Patio Bistro Garden... haha...

WE'RE LEGAL NOW...OMG

Today we got up early and made the last trip to Home Depot for the 6x6 pavers. We went to the service desk and the girl their got a guy to get the last pallet. I followed him while Tommy brought the truck around to the garden center. The guy found one pallet that GASP! already had the correct number of peices but he was looking for the other pallets (ummm yeah we took those last night and the guy helping last night must have gotten the last pallet ready in case we got there before they closed)... So all he has to do is shrink wrap it and put it on the bed of the truck.... 1 hour later we were finally on the road... The guy couldn't find a shrink wrap that worked, he needed to get the gates to block aisles but couldn't find enough, then he needed a spotter and a key carrier to open the gate to the side of the building!!! When he finally found all that he needed he said " OK we're legal now", but he couldn't even drive the forklift... So painful to watch. And of course as soon as we got to the house it started raining.

Thankfully the rain stopped and we went to down on laying down the pavers. I laid them while Tommy brought them over, as fast as he could bring them I laid them. We finished the full size pavers by noon... Then we went to Home Depot to return the 200+ extra pavers that we got (somebody can't count) and that took forever again... (normally our home depot is good but today they were terrible) We rented a paver saw and then we spent the afternoon cutting all the pieces along the border. Got some sand and compacted the pavers. Done by 5! This was just one of those days that besides the episodes at Home Depot was perfect, we got so much done.

So here is the patio...it is much bigger than we thought we were going to make it but we love how it turned out. So pretty!

STONE DUST

I took the day off today and was planning to seal the tile in the kitchen but after I washed it there is still a haze so I didn't want to seal that haze in. So instead I painted the crown in the powder room and then I painted the ceiling in the office.

Tonight after Tommy got back from work we spread the stone dust for the basement patio. It went down quickly and then his Mom came down with the truck. We went to Home Depot and bought the pavers. In one hour we were able to pick up two loads of pavers and off load them, but we didn't make it in time to go back for the third load.

GRAVEL BASE

We decided that the wall on the right side of the door should have been built a little longer so that we had more space for the second tier wall. So we extended it a good 6 feet atleast and hopefully the 2nd tier will run into it and allow enough room for a staircase off the porch.

Since we got more gravel yesterday Tommy brought it over to the basement tonight and we spread it out for the paver patio. The patio is turning out to be larger than we expected but still really nice.

WALL TWO

Tonight we built the bottom wall on the other side of the basement door. We ordered a truckload of gravel so Tommy didn't have to scrape the driveway gravel anymore to make the base and backfill behind the wall. We got the wall done and filled in the dirt behind it to start getting ready for the second tier.

WALL ONE

Today we worked on the block walls outside the walkout basement. We got the lower wall on the right side completely finished. We had to scrape gravel off the driveway in order to make the base and also to fill behind it for hydrostatic pressure so that was a pain... I guess we will have to order another truckload... Then we worked on getting the pipe for the gutter drain put together so that it can go behind the 2nd tier wall that we will eventually build when the dirt we put behind this wall settles a bit.

It turned out really great.