anatomy of a backyard makeover

my mother's day present was a new patio in our backyard.  we used to have a smallish patio out the back door and a deck - the deck was built by my mother and I back when I rented this house.

the patio was torn up by the crew who fixed the last of our plumbing last year (the house now has all pvc pipes, etc - no more old, broke-down stuff under the house!).  it's been a lovely, rocky, muddy area ever since.

the men set to work breaking down the deck (which we hope to turn into a tree house sometime this summer... when we learn how to build a tree house).  I texted my mom that they had to pull out power tools to take it apart, so obviously she's a boss at building decks.  :)

ruby helped by bringing the olivia lunch box.  I'm pretty sure she was an unofficial crew person, as she really wanted to 'help'.

disassembly, contiuned.

helping!

more helping!

after the men removed the deck, marked the outline, and began digging out, they laid down sand. DIY shows make a project like this seem like a couple of days-worth of effort, but it was a lot of sweat and hard work.  I mean, for the men who did it.  I was inside doing other things.  I did bring them water and food, though.

after the sand was in, the stones were placed:

and sod was cut and laid down between the stones:

I really like the end result.  it's a patio, but sort of modern and green and the backyard feels so much bigger.  this was taken just after it was done and before clean-up - they hauled off a pile of dirt/debris and a bunch of brush/clippings that had piled up back next to the compost bin and mgb moved the little storage house formerly at the back of the house to the back of the yard near the bin.  We've been slowing working on filling in the bare spaces in the grass and have really enjoyed our spruced up space so far this summer.