Since I moved out to the property, I’ve wanted to have a deck in the back of the main house, out the back door.
However, I never moved forward on that project.
This year, at one point Blaze and I were talking about what we wanted to do around the property this summer, what projects we were going to take on. We talked about the deck, but I was still hesitant about it.
He finally suggested that instead of a deck, I build a patio.
DIng! Ding! Ding! Ding!
That was exactly what I needed to hear. I didn’t really want a deck. I wanted a patio.
Blaze and I dug up the grass in the area where the patio was to go. Then I hired a company to do the next parts: dig down the rest of the way, and get the area all smooth and level. Bring in crushed gravel and compact it. Spread out the sand. Then deliver all the bricks.
I took on the project from there, laying out all the bricks, adding the sand, then finishing the edges.
There are lots of pictures under the cut. But it turned out beautifully!
A bunch of different brick patterns for me to choose from.
First brick pattern – basket weave
Next brick pattern – single basket weave
And the winner! Boxed basket weave
Stacks of bricks beside the patio
First couple of rows laid out.
The patio with the bricks all laid out!
Bricks laid out, from the other angle
Next, we had to compact the bricks. Unfortunately, the machine was too heavy for me to use. So Blaze compacted the bricks for me.
Here’s the final, finished patio, after the sand has been pushed in between the joints and the edging has been added.
Finished patio from another angle. Because the yard is not flat, we ended up with a raised edge between the end of the bricks and the lawn. So I put down a row of pebbles, so I won’t end up tripping on the bricks.
One last image – my gloves with all the holes worn into the fingers from handling the bricks!