The final plan included a brick patio, expanded bed, and new covered porch.

Having (finally) decided to replace our decrepit patio, we defined our requirements–appropriate for our Craftsman bungalow, follow roughly the same footprint, and a new covered porch–we iterated through variations on the same basic idea until we settled on a final plan. We preserved the same basic footprint, slightly expanding the side bed and pulling out a small paved section next to the house to create a new bed.  Continue reading →

The patio on final walkthrough in March of 2007.

We’ve been thinking about a new patio for years. The original featured multiple coats of peeling paint over cracked concrete. Topping the patio was a functional if ugly covered porch. Working on other projects, we continued to give the patio some thought, especially when nice weather pulled us outside. But it stayed low on the list. Until this summer.

A J bolt pierces a brick at the edge of the new patio.

God or the devil may or may not be in the details, but there is definite satisfaction. We recently had our old patio replaced. As our first major project we hired out, it was a little odd to not be doing it ourselves. I did, though, manage to leave a little work for myself. Part of the patio plan includes a new covered porch, which required new footings for a couple of posts. The crew from Father Nature Landscapes dug the holes and placed a couple of Sonotubes, then bricked around them. The rest was up to me. Continue reading →