Well, it’s far from a finished reveal, but the progress is pretty incredible. The good news is that my husband and I are still happily married, and the patio is done enough that it can at least function. As a reminder, here’s the before.
And here’s the “during semi-after not quite finished but enough to show you” status.
That spot has been an eye-sore for years, so we’re pretty thrilled that—if nothing else—the brush is cleared. In true JaG luck, it rained incessantly this week. Not only did it slow our progress, but it also kept us from being able to use it for the Homecoming party. Nope. Not joking.
Regardless, we’re thrilled we have an official spot to enjoy our cool fall nights until we finish it in the spring.
Ya see all that unfinished-ness? We haven’t cut the pieces to fill in the edges, we still have another layer of bonding sand to apply, and we still need to build the curved stone bench that’s ready to go (see materials up above). Oh, and we kind of mutilated portions of our yard.
Next spring, we will dive into phase two of the project. That involves building a wall behind the patio. It’ll serve as a retainer for a slope in the back and provide some extra seating. Don’t mind my horrific mock-up skills, but you can see the direction we plan on going. There’s a lot of space back there, so we’ll do some dwarf spruces, flowering trees to blend into the existing forest, and some substantial shrubs to fill in the gaps. 
So that’s where we are. It functions, and it’s 375% better than it was before. It’s kinda like painting and getting new flooring, but no furniture or accessories to make it pretty. I’ll let ya know when Phase 2 begins!
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Painting and new flooring with no new furniture. That’s where my sewing/school room is right now and our patio for our fire pit. Yours is going to be gorgeous!
That looks amazing! Heck, even with the unfinished edges it is gorgeous. And I love your mock-up. Good luck in the spring!
That’s impressive progress! And I love your mock up skills – they’re quite similar to mine. 😉 What a bummer that you couldn’t use it for homecoming though!! I love it regardless.
Looks great Chris !! Happy to read your posts again. Hope the school year is off to a great stRt and you are doing well.
Great plant choices! Step 1 was a great one. I really like the clean look of paving stones. We currently have crusher dust, and it just doesn’t have the appeal like yours does:) Enjoy those fires and I look forward to an update next spring:)
Looks beautiful! And, I am laughing at your cut and paste landscaping ….. looks so familiar its scary
WOW!! I LOVE IT!! That is a lot of work to “work those blocks”. So glad to hear you’re still happily married (LOL!). I absolutely love phase two. That is going to be completely stunning. A beautiful relaxing, yet family fun area. Kudos!
Gosh! That turned out fabulous. Love it!
I love it!!!!!