The gravel driveway is compacting down nicely…and the dirt front yard is coming along as well.
I’m finally coming around to loving the gravel driveway. It was a huge compromise and not my “dream” choice but considering the low cost and the high functionality, I’m leaning on the side of awesome.
Have you ever compromised on a project and been pleasantly surprised?
Figured out today that we are stupid, like really stupid.
I blame it on inexperience, but logically if your going to create a gridded cement paver patio it would be wise to level the area, put down sand and install the pavers first.
Maybe it’s just project fatigue. We also drove to Home Depot in my little Scion to pick up 10′ lengths of wood and 30 super heavy cinder blocks. Once we loaded up the cart we realized we had to drive back home and get The Boys truck.
We Are Idiots.
The whole plan was to create a 18 x 18′ gridded cement paver patio around the fire pit with gravel as a filler. It would have been smarter to install those f*cking pavers first but somehow we got gravel happy and thought we needed to level out the area with gravel. Dumb move.
I installed the first row of stepping stones behind the garage today and it required digging out each individual spot, leveling and finessing each stone in a rocky pit of hell, and cursing our own ineptness.
I do think it turned out rad considering the disgusting hamster bedding dog run of death that was there before.
We chose 18 x 18″ cement stepping stones that cost about $50 total.
Now we have to decide what to do:
– Leave it all gravel.
– Install 18 x 18″ pavers at $5 a piece.
– Install 12 x 12″ pavers at $1 a piece.
I’m leaning towards the 12 x 12″ pavers, even though initially I was super opposed to them (I had lofty dreams of like 30 x 30″ pavers till I found out how much they are and how fragile). The smaller ones are WAY easier to work with, could be installed closer together and would be about $150 compared to like $350 for the larger size.
We are still chugging along on the patio and fire pit and almost hit the halfway point. I know you all are probably tired of seeing this project in process, but it’s consuming our lives right now – so suck it.
We did our first mortar job and discovered that we are not great masons. Oops. It is pretty solid even though our lameness tried to ruin it.
We also installed wood edging to help reign in the rock. We used 4 x 4″ pressure treated wood that was first sealed to resist the great outdoors. What I really want is COR-TEN steel edging like my fake boyfriend Blake Dollahite’s got going on.
The only fabricators I’ve been able to find that would understand what I want is Austin Outdoor Studio. Problem is, 1. They are in Austin and 2. I’m pretty sure they would be crazy cost prohibitive.
Where the hell do you buy cor-ten steel? I gotta learn to weld so that I can suck at that too.
