A little background. When Brett and I bought the house in 2009 we knew something would have to be done with the backyard. The patio was made of brick pavers (one of the few redeeming qualities of the backyard) and was centered in the middle of the backyard. To the right of the patio was a grove of ornamental trees and to the left of the patio there were a couple other ornamental spruce trees and a privacy fence (which despite it's name, did not provide any privacy). We removed at least 10 trees in the backyard and the not-so-private privacy fence, thus freeing up valuable and usable space. The trees that we removed were terrible. In addition to being an eyesore because they were patchy and grew unevenly, they hurt when you brushed by them, and they attracted lots of hornets nests. They needed to go and in 2010 (I think), Brett and I removed most of the 'ornamental' trees to open the space up a little bit. This left a giant dirt/mud pit behind the garage. And because so much earth had moved, the brick patio began to warp and bevel.
I had a vision to redo the backyard and maximize the usable space for Will and Woody (and even Zoe who is now back to being an indoor/outdoor cat). I wanted to reposition the patio behind the garage (which is the area that gets the least amount of sunlight and thus less-prone to growing grass). I wanted to put a chair-height retaining wall/bench around the patio area to keep the slope at bay and create additional seating to use when we have patio parties. I wanted to continue the retaining wall the length of the property to keep the slope from encroaching closer to the house. I wanted to level out the rest of the backyard as much as possible and grow grass everywhere else. Brett's only requests were to ensure proper drainage. After discussing my vision with several landscaping/hardscaping companies, we settled on a crew that would get us the most bang for our buck and we opted for a stamped concrete patio.
We kicked off demolition of our old backyard on Saturday, May 5. The crew showed up with a bobcat and a team of 10 or so people. They ripped up the existing brick paver patio, scooped out all of the ugly scalloped edging (YAY!), leveled and smoothed out the ground as much as possible, and pushed the slope back a good 6 to 8 feet. I was surprised by how much they got done in such little time. We salvaged the items worth saving: a couple of boxwoods were replanted at the top of the slope and the slate stepping stones were saved for a later project (hooray for projects!!!).
My mom and dad came by to help so that Mom could watch Little Will and Dad could supervise the demolition. Will absolutely LOVED watching the bobcat go back and forth across the backyard scooping up the bricks and dumping them into the debris pile to be hauled away. We need to get this little boy a John Deere hat ASAP. I keep telling him that Pop Pop will take him for a tractor ride the next time we are in King George! Woody and Zoe were in agreement and did not particularly like the crew in the backyard. Zoe would even growl at them occasionally - who needs a guard dog when you have a guard-cat!
They started the next Monday putting up the retaining wall and prepping the area for the concrete pour. The retaining wall came out excellent! I'm so excited and happy with the choice of color and style. I can't believe how much bigger it makes our backyard look now that the slope was pushed back so far.
Tuesday was the big day to pour the concrete. It is do-or-die with concrete, once you start pouring, you cannot stop and you have to finish the job. They started the pour around noon and about an hour or so into the pour, it well.... started to pour! The rain was slow at first as the crew rushed to put up tarps and cover the site. The rain would come and go over the next few hours. They ended up attaching one side of the tarp to the top of the house and the other side of the tarp to the tree branches at the top of the slope, creating a makeshift tent. The workers then worked furiously under the tarp trying to wrap up the pour. What a show! I was fairly nervous that the rain would impact the composition of the concrete, but 'googling' set my mind at ease and found out that the moisture would actually make the concrete cure better so long as the rain didn't create pock-marks on the surface. Go figure! The pattern was stamped into the concrete slab and the stairs and walkway were formed as well. The tarps had to stay up all night and we were told not to walk on it. We really liked the little we could actually see.
Wednesday only one guy showed up. He cut expansion joints in the concrete (to prevent cracking). And he pressure washed the concrete and the side of the house (which was mega-dirty even from before the patio project began). After he left, we finally got to walk on it and check it out in person. I love the look of it and it makes our backyard look HUGE! I think the patio is even big/long enough that the cornhole boards can be set up at regulation length!
There are still a few things left to be done: a little patch work on the retaining wall, re-installing the railroad ties to retain the slope further up the hill, drainage questions, re-sodding what is now a mud-pit, and a couple other small things. After all of that the project will be DONE! Our next job would be to work on the landscaping - which I'm hoping we can do the majority of this ourselves. Maybe the fall when planting season hits again.
I'm looking forward to having people over to chill and hang out on our new patio!
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