Making Progress

I would say the hardest part of the patio project is complete!  Digging in the backyard has been giving Keith flashbacks to installing the irrigation system last summer - which will always be known as the worst DIY project ever taken on by the Bormann's.  Mostly because - this might look like dirt, but REALLY, it's much more like CEMENT.  

You have to dig down about 7", which equals A LOT OF DIRT.   Basically, this would not be complete if it weren't for my sister's fiancé, Mark.  Lucky for us he owns a bobcat / rental business and has all the things you really need for building a patio and is also has some super Bobcat Skillz!  He was so kind to meet Keith at our house one afternoon and Keith said it took him about an hour to dig it out.  Even with the Bobcat I'm sure it would have taken Keith a good day to dig it up.  The second thing - look at all that dirt!  They filled two of those trailers.  I was shocked when I saw it - it doesn't look like you could possibly dig up that much dirt.  The sweet thing about this- it was a hydralic trailer so they didn't even have to scoop the dirt back out.  So it is safe to say that if it weren't for Mark, we would be digging this thing until August!  

 

Keith had to hand-dig this small chunk and it probably took him at least 3 or 4 hours.  Finally he started to water it to soften the dirt.  Then we remembered from putting trees in last summer - to make any progress digging in our yard - you need a pickaxe.  Took three stores, but I found one at Home Depot.  Then progress went much quicker! 

So what is next?  This weekend Keith spent time tamping it down and working on leveling it out and making sure it slopes away from our house.  Now we are ready for the rock, which I believe Mark will be helping us out again.  From there we can finish leveling and it will be time to work on the wall / fire pit.  We also need to order the rest of the pavers this week.  Somehow when we squared off the patio we ended up getting an additional pallets worth of pavers larger- oops!  But it is what it is now.  Hopefully I will have more progress to share this week. We are at about 5 weeks until the baby is here!