One Room Challenge Fall 2018: Week Three

Week three and things are starting to take shape! We made lots of progress this weekend/week and I’m feeling pretty good about finishing in the 6 weeks this time.

PATIO

Friday our bulk gravel was delivered. The delivery driver dumped it in the driveway for us which was the most convenient place we could get it. For local readers, we used Southern Mulch and they were so nice to work with. Both the person who took my order over the phone and the delivery guy were so nice and helpful. 10/10 definitely recommend. Originally we had looked at buying bagged stone from Home Depot but we needed to cover almost 400sqft just for the patio area and it ended up being much cheaper to go the bulk route.

I was so excited when it got delivered but I also felt like the pile looked so much smaller than I thought it would and I kind of questioned if I had done my order right. Spoiler alert: I did. Kyle had to inch worm my car out of the garage Sunday to get around the pile so I’d be able to go to the office on Monday.

Saturday morning we were both able to get out and clear the patio area again. We’ve had a lot of rain and wind so there were a lot of leaves and limbs down that needed to be picked up and we had to dig next to a few of the bricks where the dirt had piled up again. We were able to rake everything out pretty quickly and cover the area with landscaping fabric to help keep weeds from coming up through the gravel.

And then OG woke up from her first <20 minute nap of the day (sick infants are fun!) and Kyle was on his own to load up and spread wheelbarrows full of gravel.

He was able to get the entire area spread and even moved the sectional, fire pit, and torches to the space just to see how everything was looking. I still need to scrape the rust off of the sectional frame and touch up with some rust proof spray paint which will probably happen this weekend. I might also spray a couple of coats of high heat black paint on the torches since they are a bit faded from the sun.

And in case you’ve forgotten the before (as if you could ever get this image out of your brain):

Anyway, the real trick over here has been trying to keep the dogs from using it as their pee pit. They have an entire yard to run around in and pee but they’ve been loving using the bathroom over here (another reason we wanted to put some rock down). We’re having mixed results right now and it’s like potty training puppies all over again.

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I was going to stain the adirondack kits that we picked up on end of season clearance at Home Depot and then build them this weekend but last minute I decided to order a sprayer to make my life so much easier. It should get here Friday so I’ll probably go ahead and build them this week and stain them this weekend.

I am already itching to sit around the fire pit and the weather is perfect for it! We might have to start sitting out there after OG goes to bed to enjoy it.

The next big project for this part of the yard is to build the baby swing arbor along the yard side of the patio. We’ve been wanting to get a swing for OG but there aren’t really any good branches for us to use because all of our trees are so tall and there aren’t many low branches. The arbor will be pretty simple and I plan on building it with planters on either side that we can plant seasonally. Here’s a very a professional sketch of what I’m thinking:

I actually started building the first planter yesterday but then I snapped my pilot bit in two places and gave up.

Here’s our updated to-do list for the patio:

-Clean out junk
–Clear ground – pull weeds and small trees, move large stones, rake out area
-Dig out next to bricks to allow space for gravel
-Weed current brick walkway – In Progress
-Lay extra bricks to complete existing brick walkway
-Order gravel to have delivered
-Lay weed fabric
-Spread gravel
-Pressure wash siding and brick
-Build/Stain adirondack kits (purchased at Home Depot during End of Season clearance) – In Progress
-Remove rust from outdoor sectional – In Progress
-Build/stain outdoor console table
-Hang cafe lights
-Finish existing privacy screen? (Decided against this)
-Decorate/Style space
-Build arbor/baby swing stand – In Progress

WALKWAY

We didn’t do much in the walkway area because the patio needed to be filled in first. Plus, Sunday was pretty chilly and dreary for the first half of the day. We are holding on filling the walkway with gravel because we need to pour our pavers first. Kyle was able to put together 2 of the 5 concrete forms from lumber we already had in our garage.

We are hoping to get the forms set in place and pour the pavers this weekend as long as the weather cooperates and once those have cured we can remove the forms and spread gravel. I’m hoping we have enough gravel left over to widen the walkway area so that my planters aren’t sitting on dirt but we’ll see.

Our to-do list remains unchanged for the walkway but we’re hoping to knock out several items this weekend and then I think the hardest parts will be over!

-Clear junk
-Rake out/remove existing mulch
-Remove weeds
-Remove monkey grass that has regrown
-Transplant plum trees (not enough light in current location)
-Clean up/remove surrounding foilage
-Pressure wash
-DIY large concrete pavers
-DIY concrete pad for trash/yard waste containers
-Build/Stain privacy screen for trash/yard waste containers
-Hang cafe lights? (Might look nice to have some here, too)
-Fill in with gravel
-Build planters

This is what I’m hoping to get done before next week’s post but I think it’s supposed to rain Saturday which is normally our big work day:

-Weed brick border
-Remove rust from outdoor sectional
-Build/stain adirondacks
-Start building planters/arbor
-Pour concrete pavers
-Build/stain privacy screen

Make sure you check out the rest of the guest participants right here!