Paver Walkway by Hottub
One of the projects we were working on was extending the existing pavers from the back of the house around the South side, past the hottub pad to the fence and gate. We wanted to stop the pavers at the gate so we can put a different type of walkway from the front of the house around to the gate. Since I’m still not working and “house/yard work” is my full time job, this project was on my own and I have to admit, frustrating but also really rewarding. Since this was my first time laying pavers on my own, I did need to check with Craig in the evenings to ensure I was doing it right : )
May 26, 2009
To extend the pavers to where I wanted, I needed to purchase 260 pavers. So….. Lowe’s here I come. After the pavers were unloaded then it was off to get a load of sand and road mix for the project. Below is Bailey supervising the beginning of the project. Where the black box is on the right is where I began.
May 26 - 27, 2009
Here is a great example of how 1 project turns into 2 or 3. As I was beginning to lay the pavers, the foundation of the house kept speaking to me….yes….it was speaking to me. We have been wanting to paint the foundation at “some point”, but it was not a high priority. I kept thinking, “man, once the pavers are laid and I paint the foundation, I’m going to have to be really careful and mask off the pavers so I don’t get paint on them.” Well……the more I thought about it, I decided I needed to paint the foundation BEFORE any further pavers could be put in.
I borrowed a friend’s power washer and washed the foundation. Let it dry for about 2 days and then put 2 coats of exterior concrete paint on the foundation. I had the color matched to the bottom color of the house paint knowing it would be different but complimentary. It is difficult to tell from these pictures how good it turned out, but…..it looks GREAT! Once I get the bark and plants in it will be even BETTER!
My assistant helping me apply the first coat to the North side of the house. Completed foundation painting
In progress painting on the front side of the house Completed
May 27 – 28, 2009
I got really lucky in laying the pavers that I did not need to cut, break, or chisel too many of them. The dimensions worked out perfect so that the space between the house and the hottub pad was EVEN. Since the pavers had “cuts” in them anyway it was pretty easy to chisel off what I did not need.
Back of the yard looking toward street. The red brick wall was already here when we bought the house so we thought it would be a cool spot to eventually put our BBQ grill and incorporate this whole area into our outdoor living/dining room!
Looking from the front of the house into the back yard.
Completed project! The little black grill is our portable “jetski grill”. We need to bring the big grill home from the storage unit and it will fit perfect in the corner.