New Patio!

Ever since we've moved in to our house, Caitlin and I have always wanted to get rid of our ugly backyard and shed.  It took up 1/3 of our backyard, and the rest was full of 6" tall grass, and let me tell you, I really can't be motivated to mow a 12' x 10' piece of grass.  So we needed to get rid of it.  We found someone on craigslist to come and take the shed, and I took a shovel and cleared out all the sod with the grass.

My dad came over and helped me get rid of the planter box in the corner and we were left with just a big giant pit of dirt.  After a week or two to figure out what we wanted to do, I spent a couple weekends framing out the entire yard with landscape timbers around the outsides, and also an L shaped frame along each side of the yard and gate.  I then took 2x4's and built up an 8" wall built on the two L shaped frames and topped them with 5/4 x 6 boards in a nice mitered frame.

After that, my buddy Kirk came over and showed my how to measure and get it all level, and I spent another weekend (with my Dad's truck of course) filling up the main yard space with gravel and compacting it and then covering it with another layer of sand with my friend Nate's help.  Once that was done, Caitlin and Danielle layed the stones that Nate and I stacked up and then I spent the afternoon with a brick saw cutting the final pieces and putting them in place.  Lastly, I ran a nice LED Ropelight under the lip of the planter boxes so we get a little ambiance at night and we put together our outdoor table and chairs and voila!