Patio Ponderings

Ridding my yard of thousands of garlic mustard
plants ready to set seed is what I did in May....all of May. 
My back really hurts.

Hey all!  It's been a while since my last post.  I've been busting my tail to get all that evil-incarnate garlic mustard pulled before it sets seed, which means anything related to the house, including basic cleaning, has been pushed to the side.  No time to blog either.  ('til now.)

Still, the month of May wasn't a total loss.  There was one house project that is now mostly completed.  I managed to hire a contractor to put in a concrete patio under our deck.  And, despite all the rain we've had, the contractor managed to install it a couple of weeks earlier than expected.  It only took his crew two days to complete the patio, which was about 540 sq. ft.

Over the winter, I had toyed with the idea of putting in a patio myself but things have been so crazy I decided to hire out the job.  (So it'd get done in our lifetime.)

Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out.  We had a terrible time with brambles, saplings and other plants growing right up to the basement door, making it almost impossible to get outside.  And even if you did want to wander among the thorny brambles, every time it rained, dirt splashed up into the door's track; gunking it up so badly you couldn't open it.

So, I'm glad we had that space paved.  However, there were a couple of issues, due mostly to my poor communication skills and lack of help-hiring experience.  I'm not complaining; just pointing out the mistakes I made so that others can learn from them.



Watch that last step; it's a doozy!

First, I had a perennial bed close to the house.  Most people wouldn't even notice it 'cuz our yard is basically a jungle. 

I moved most of the plants I thought might be 'dozed over, but I miscalculated how much room the skid loader would need.  So, since I never pointed out the perennial bed to the contractor, my GORGEOUS Roy Davidson pulmonarias, columbine and false solomon's seal plants were gone within minutes after they started working.  Waaaah! 

Second, when my contractor had quoted the job, he had made the statement that he was going to install the patio so we could walk right out from the basement door.  It just sounded like common sense to me.  (Of course we want to be able to walk out onto the patio from our door!)  I didn't think to question it.  Turns out I should have. 

As promised, they installed the patio almost flush with the basement door, resulting in a patio so high off the ground that I'm going to have to put in steps off the end of it in order to access the rest of the yard. Also, the bottom stair step is now only a couple of inches from the ground, which looks a bit weird.

Finally, my husband told me to be sure not to pay the contractor until I verified that they completed the job correctly (duh!) and <i>also</i> cleaned up everything.  Although I scrutinized their concrete work, I only eyeballed the cleanup effort.  So now our 2nd driveway has ruts in it that were only partially filled back in.  Oops!  Guess I should have worn my glasses.

I now have to figure out where to put steps
to the rest of the yard and also how to put in a
retaining wall that doesn't detract from the round bump-out

Despite these errors, the patio looks great and I love the rounded bump-out we added on the advice of the contractor.  I wouldn't have thought to go beyond the deck myself but it is a nice touch and makes the patio more usable. The only downside is that we have to make sure our cats don't attempt to jump down from the deck.  Before they would have landed on soft dirt and plants.  Now it'd be a bone-breaker.