Starting the Backyard Makeover + Our New Flagstone Patio

Today instead of just showing you pictures of our terrible backyard we’ve actually gotten started on making it over. Well not us exactly, this is one DIY project we hired out for. We’d been wanting to majorly overhaul our small, but potential-filled outdoor space and were really excited when the crew arrived in our yard. Even if it was at 7:00am 🙂

The first thing they did was take out the U.G.L.Y. red brick edging. We were glad to see it go.

Right after that came the removal of the cement. Now when you have cement at your house and thing you want to remove it yourselves, don’t do it. Even if you have Popeye as a brother-in-law who will show up with this jackhammer and get it out for free. Don’t let him.

Hire a guy and a small bobcat and watch that cement come out in about three minutes flat. I kid you not.

They drove that thing in through the fence we removed, and even though it took up the entire yard, it’s about the best outdoor machine you can have. I literally went inside to make tea and when I came out three minutes later, all the cement was gone. Goodbye U.G.L.Y. sidewalk that went nowhere.

Where the sidewalk was is where our new patio was to go, so they prepped the space, removed the grass, added leveling stone and soon it was like a new space all together. The top left is the before, and bottom right was after.

Then it came time for the good stuff. Our new Pennsylvania Flagstone patio, and reclaimed brick street paver walkway, which came from the streets of Buffalo {where we live} a long time ago.

To create the patio and walkway area, they run a string from each edge of the area it will go within, mark it out with spray paint {we all use it!} and then start laying bricks. Our walkway was an alternating pattern, which was part of our original design.

While one crew member was finishing that, the others got started on the flagstone, which we picked out. It has a slight green tint that I thought would go well with the outdoors, and some of the pieces have striations of other colors and slight clefting in the stone. They move all the materials in wheelbarrows.

A few hours later, we had this!

It was really exciting to see that after it just looked like this that morning. What a change.

The combination and contrast of the brick street pavers and flagstone is really stunning. We kept walking around on it just staring at the ground. And I love that the bricks have a story to them. Apparently they were made in Pennsylvania and were in the hardscape of a large old mansion in the city here where we live. The company took them out to redo that property a while back and so we got them now. Isn’t that neat? And so environmentally friendly too.

These photos from above were taken from the guest room window. It’s fun to see the before and after shots.

While the patio area still needs edging and sand in between the stones and bricks, the rest of the yard needs work too. Our grass got covered by the dirt taken from the patio spot, so we’ll be planting new grass there after we edge the rest of the yard.

But we did get a new step for going into the garage. Before we had an old wooden one that moved when you stepped on it. This is a piece of Medina Sandstone. It’s massively heavy and took all three of the crew to move it.

We also unearthed pieces of sandstone when digging up the patio area and have some that look like they used to be street curbs. These are some of the fun parts of having an old house. You’ll never know what you find when you start DIY. We’ll have to think of what to do with them.

And that’s part one of the new flagstone patio installation. After this the crew edged the patio and so I’ll show that soon. Happy almost the weekend! See you soon friends 🙂