A Big Puzzle
I made a bit more progress on the outdoor grill and kitchen area which allowed me to let out a small sigh of relief after a few weeks of alternating between poor weather and poor health.
I believe we have enough patio blocks for the small kitchen area that will be under a roof. This area is only about 42 square feet so I didn't really need a whole lot of blocks. They are heavy, however, so we had to buy them in about three batches because we've been transporting them in our small cars. As a result, we encountered a problem when Lowes restocked with a different shade of block than we had originally bought in the first batch. I had to settle for two shades of gray, but it will look fine when it is all put together.
Since we were transporting these patio blocks in our cars, we had to make multiple trips back and forth to Lowes. This was fairly easy to do... whenever we were up in the Burlington area running errands, we just stopped at Lowes also to pick up about 200 lbs of blocks... loaded them on the floor of the backseat to keep the weight near the middle of the car... and then unloaded them when we arrived home.
I quickly realized that I had a few other projects to complete before installing the patio blocks. I needed to figure out exactly where I need to place the posts to support the roof structure. Once I knew the location of the posts, then I could lay out the patio blocks from the concrete footings for the posts. This would also be the connection point for the stone pathway to the back door of the house.
As far as the stone pathway goes, we are sort of winging this part of the project. We have been collecting flat stone wherever we can get it over the past few years. I didn't know how far our collection would go so I had to lay it out on the lawn before I started cutting up the lawn. Since I didn't have a clue how far our small collection of stones would go, I didn't know how much of the lawn to remove first. This meant that I needed to do a test fit by putting together a big puzzle of stones on top of the lawn.
I had a few ideas of how I wanted these stones to flow so I just started with that. I knew I wanted a clean, clear path between the back door of the house and the grilling area so I started with finding a way to connect this path to the original stone path that I installed a few years ago that leads to the back door from the driveway.
That original path was installed using rocks collected from a number of different locations so I figured it might be a little tricky continuing this path without it looking like a separate project. After laying out this big puzzle on our lawn, I think the transition will look fine when this new stone pathway is installed level with the original pathway to the back door.
It turns out that I wish I had another 50% or so more stones to continue this stone pathway back farther into the yard as well as have some stones leftover for our front entrance. As always, however, I am biting off more than I can chew. I need to focus on this kitchen grilling area so I can get this project done and move onto the next project. One project at a time... I'll just have to continue collecting flat stone whenever I come across some.
One by one, I moved the stones from a pile near the front of the house and placed them down in the area for the new pathway. This quickly was too much for my spinal injuries so I broke the project into a few smaller, shorter projects. My spine is still screaming but at least I am able to stand (now anyway... at first, the pain was unbearable which is what prompted me to break this little project into much smaller projects). Regardless of needing to stretch this part of the project out over the course of days, I think it went together rather quickly and easily.
Now I can just remove a few square feet of stone at a time... pull up the lawn from that small area... then move the stone back into place... level each stone... then move on to the next few square feet and repeat the process. When everything is level, I can then fill in between the stones with dirt and grass seed.
The back door to the house is to the left in the upper left of the photo. The grilling kitchen area will be where the patio blocks are stacked and back up against the little playhouse for the kids. The concrete footings are already in place for the posts that will support the roof and I already laid out about ten patio blocks for a dry fit of that small, basic puzzle.
The big puzzle for flooring and pathways has been put together and it is looking pretty good! And, it has some character!
I believe we have enough patio blocks for the small kitchen area that will be under a roof. This area is only about 42 square feet so I didn't really need a whole lot of blocks. They are heavy, however, so we had to buy them in about three batches because we've been transporting them in our small cars. As a result, we encountered a problem when Lowes restocked with a different shade of block than we had originally bought in the first batch. I had to settle for two shades of gray, but it will look fine when it is all put together.
Since we were transporting these patio blocks in our cars, we had to make multiple trips back and forth to Lowes. This was fairly easy to do... whenever we were up in the Burlington area running errands, we just stopped at Lowes also to pick up about 200 lbs of blocks... loaded them on the floor of the backseat to keep the weight near the middle of the car... and then unloaded them when we arrived home.
I quickly realized that I had a few other projects to complete before installing the patio blocks. I needed to figure out exactly where I need to place the posts to support the roof structure. Once I knew the location of the posts, then I could lay out the patio blocks from the concrete footings for the posts. This would also be the connection point for the stone pathway to the back door of the house.
As far as the stone pathway goes, we are sort of winging this part of the project. We have been collecting flat stone wherever we can get it over the past few years. I didn't know how far our collection would go so I had to lay it out on the lawn before I started cutting up the lawn. Since I didn't have a clue how far our small collection of stones would go, I didn't know how much of the lawn to remove first. This meant that I needed to do a test fit by putting together a big puzzle of stones on top of the lawn.
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| The kitchen grilling area will be under a roof where the patio blocks are stacked in this photo... posts for the roof will be located where the concrete post footings are located... the back door to the house is just out of the frame on the left (next to the white gravel). |
That original path was installed using rocks collected from a number of different locations so I figured it might be a little tricky continuing this path without it looking like a separate project. After laying out this big puzzle on our lawn, I think the transition will look fine when this new stone pathway is installed level with the original pathway to the back door.
It turns out that I wish I had another 50% or so more stones to continue this stone pathway back farther into the yard as well as have some stones leftover for our front entrance. As always, however, I am biting off more than I can chew. I need to focus on this kitchen grilling area so I can get this project done and move onto the next project. One project at a time... I'll just have to continue collecting flat stone whenever I come across some.
One by one, I moved the stones from a pile near the front of the house and placed them down in the area for the new pathway. This quickly was too much for my spinal injuries so I broke the project into a few smaller, shorter projects. My spine is still screaming but at least I am able to stand (now anyway... at first, the pain was unbearable which is what prompted me to break this little project into much smaller projects). Regardless of needing to stretch this part of the project out over the course of days, I think it went together rather quickly and easily.
Now I can just remove a few square feet of stone at a time... pull up the lawn from that small area... then move the stone back into place... level each stone... then move on to the next few square feet and repeat the process. When everything is level, I can then fill in between the stones with dirt and grass seed.
The back door to the house is to the left in the upper left of the photo. The grilling kitchen area will be where the patio blocks are stacked and back up against the little playhouse for the kids. The concrete footings are already in place for the posts that will support the roof and I already laid out about ten patio blocks for a dry fit of that small, basic puzzle.
The big puzzle for flooring and pathways has been put together and it is looking pretty good! And, it has some character!
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