Patio Positives

This is a photo of the curbing laid on Monday, September 19 in the back yard, ready for the astroturf putting green. This is the south side of the yard.






This is the north side of the yard with the wet curbing in place. I wish I would have taken a photo with the machine that laid the curb. It took them about 30 minutes to put down all four places where we had the curbing installed: two in the back yard, two around the grass in the front yard. It certainly changed the look of the place.



Saturday, September 17 at 7 a.m. the concrete company arrived to pour our patio extension. They prepared the forms and got the area marked and measured, adding a little rock and fill dirt in several places.
The curve of the pour was easy with bendable form board. They began pouring cement before 9 a.m.



The first pour went on the south side, right next to the back door. Now there is an easier access to the back yard.







The main extension took a few wheelbarrows of cement to fill and level.







They had to add rock on the north side to raise it to the proper level. We extended the cement to accommodate the grill on the north side of the house. It is going to be so nice.






The north view of the forms ready and the pour in progress.
Steve and I moved most of the red rock from the area along with the help of a young college student who needed some money/work.





The cement truck practically blocked the street during the thirty minutes they took to fill the forms. And they cleaned up the area so nicely with brooms and water hoses.






Another view of the truck.








A closer view of the exit ramp for the cement. Ben: do you like all the machinery pictures?







Workers and forms. You can see on the right side of the picture the black plastic that is under all the red rock. While they poured the cement, we were moving the red rock from that area and making piles in the north and south ends to add to the rock there.
I literally made myself sick working so hard that morning. I didn't feel well all of Sunday and into Monday morning.



You can see Steve working and removing the red rock. It was a lot of hard work. He dripped sweat, so you could say, there was blood, sweat and tears into this job.






They were craftsmen with their pour. The guy with the long pole has done this work for 18 years. He was so precise.







The guy with the boots in the cement is the craftsman, the kid with the tattoos and white shirt is the son of the owner, Mark, and was his first day on the job. Mark is trying to teach his son the trade so he can take it over someday. The kid couldn't even pull a nail out of the board so he has some things to learn. But he was willing and hard working so he should be successful.



Almost done with the pour. Mark is from Persia and loved to talk. We had to keep rescuing each other by calling our names so we could get back to our work of moving rocks instead of standing and listening to Mark tell his life history. Divorce, finding the Lord, getting married, having his son move in with him, etc. You get the picture?



The last wheelbarrow full of wet cement is now dumped. All that remains is the leveling.







So smooth and nice looking.








Smoothing and finessing to finish the job.









Duplicating the existing lines from the old patio, into the new one. It would be hard to tell this patio extension was not part of the original house and patio. The smoothed and edged and made it look beautiful. They left at 12:45 p.m. after five and a half hours.






My counsel: I wish we would have done this project sooner, but in the waiting, we came up with a better plan. Sometimes waiting to do something like home improvements can bring better plans and ideas. Ours has been a work in progress. I can't wait to show you the finished positives.