The Patio Fiasco is Complete!

Over 4 months ago, we decided to extend our patio because we did not have a place big enough to put our patio table on.  We would put it on the grass but when it rained, the chairs would sink.  It was not cute.  On top of all of this, we had a small patio that buckled over the winter.  So we decided to replace those patio blocks and extend the whole thing.  We knew we wanted pavers, it was just a matter of procuring a landscaper and being able to afford it.

BEFORE: Area of grass and buckled pavers

This turned into the most stressful project we've ever done.

My mom is a bartender and her bar patron and mainly labor-type workers.  She made mention of our wanting to extend the patio and a customer said he was getting rid of his deck, the wood was new and he would design and install a deck for us.  We were very excited because all we were going to have to pay was labor.  3 days of phone tag later, he shows up on our agreed day an hour late.  I had to work a wedding that day, so I was already nervous. They were there for a while thinking of different designs.  He told me he would call me back later that day with a price.

3 weeks later, he gives MY MOM (not even me) a sketch of his design.  It's *nothing* what we discussed, he blocked off the whole thing where there is no access to the grass (hello!  landscapers need to get across there to mow the lawn!) and all of a sudden the wood is no longer free because he does not have enough.  So we need to buy the material & pay him.. and, oh wait!, the price of lumber is going up so that quote is no longer good.

Veto!  We decide a deck is not even what we wanted and would not be ideal for the space. Next...
I contact 4 concrete contractors and 3 landscapers for paver pricing.  1 concrete guy kept rescheduling to the point where I told him to forget it and the other 3 completely blew me off.  1 paver quote was redic, the other was reasonable and our landscaper's never called us back.

Come to find out my cousin's husband knows how to do this.  we hire him.  He tells us 2 weeks.  We have an idea to hire the landscapers to prep the area - remove existing pavers/dig down 6 inches and remove sod & dig down 6 inches and take it away.  $1000 quote later I told them they were out of their minds.  My cousin insures us he can do this.

We buy the material at Menard's.  Go in one day and get the wrong information from an idiot and a redic quote for material that leaves us thinking we cannot afford this project.  Go back, complain, get the correct help and free delivery.  Delivery comes, missing 2 skids.  The 10 skids still took up all the room in our garage though!

It took 4 more b*tchy phone calls and 4 more days to get the remaining pavers that we needed.  And then we didn't even have enough sand and paver base.  2 car load trips of 1000+ pounds later... we have all the material.  Oh!  But we have 10 bags of sand left and 500 pavers leftover.  *sigh*

We had to "hire" a friend of ours one day to come and help him, rent a sod cutter and borrow a few tools from a friend.  Add in a BUTTLOAD of rain and it took over 3 weeks to prep the area.  We had to find creative ways to reuse the dirt (we're leveling out the 'dip' along our fence in the yard and installing a retaining wall in the front).  We sat looking at a mess for a while:

He basically lived with us for 5 weeks straight while he finished this project.  Most of the delay was from the torrential rainfalls we had during those weeks which resulted in us having to rent a water pump 7 times and losing several days while things dried.  He finished last week Thursday.  2 days before my 4th BBQ.  I was able to get everything done.  I was down to the wire and I can barely walk but it's done.

Although, this was the most stressful project ever we are very pleased with the way it turned out.  We loveour new patio and are sure to get a lot of use out of it!