Hillbilly Grillin

I miss my deck and can't wait to get this grill back to the new patio.

The Bluestones are here!! The Bluestones are here!!

Another big day for the new patio.  The remaining boulders and all of the heavy equipment are gone.  The patio got the final screed and the bluestone arrived.  Three big pallets of it.  Many of the stones are taller than I am.  We really can't wait to see how it looks when it's all down.  Rob said it would be about 2 and a half days to lay the stone.  During that time, it must feel like we go from project to patio.  The summer has been beautiful, we really miss having a place to sit outside.

Also, see the photo of the damage the front lawn has taken as it's endured countless trips back and forth between the patio and the driveway.

The patio has its shape

Well, after almost 4 weeks, the wall is complete.  There are 2 sets of steps (one more to go).  We are really thrilled with the way its turning out.  Tomorrow we should have some of the bluestone that's going to comprise the patio surface.

Another 40 Tons

This photo puts us at 80 tons of gravel to support the patio.  It's hard to believe we've consumed 80 tons of anything.  I really want to hear what the total weight of everything in total is.  It looks like we're doing a 2 tiered patio.  We're not.  That's just where they ended for the day.

40 Tons of stone today

Today the KGK guys installed 40 tons of stone to begin to bring the level of the surface up to finish grade. I guess that's about 20 truckloads. The poor guys were out working on the the hottest day of the year. Note the 12" corrugated pipe in the background. That's for concrete forms for an arbor that will eventually go over the grill. We think we're going to wait on the arbor until we get a feeling for how we will use the patio. But, installing the forms now will allow the arbor to more easily be installed later.

It sounds like they are going to do another 40 tons tomorrow too.

Hi Joan!!

Huge Progress

This was probably the most visible progress made in a single day. In addition to completing the circular part of the patio wall, they got most of the work done on the steps.

Check out the photo of the rock at the apex of the circle. That's a hole from the quarry where they would have dropped dynamite. When we saw the hole, we knew it had to be visible in the project somehow. Rob and Dave, the guys from KGK did a great job.

More Boulders and A Lot of Rain

The rain slowed progress again, but we sure ended up with a lot more boulders.

The Wall Continues

Before the rain hit today, they were able to get a lot of rocks placed. The retaining wall has at least the first course outlining the bigger part of the patio. I'm a little worried about the water that remains below the drain.

Photo 1 - The backyard grading starts to take place

Photo 2 - Drainage doesn't look quite right

Photo 3 - They made a lot of progress on the wall

Just a little more wall

Last week was a very slow week for visible progress. We only had a handful of boulders placed. The wall grew a little, but not a lot. They got lots of work done on the stuff you don't really see like drainage, grading and foundation for the wall. I expect with that out of the way, we'll see a lot of progress this week.

The rain has slowed us down

It rained yesterday. It's really slowed the project as work had to stop on Monday and today the job site was a muddy mess. They should be back at it tomorrow. Before the rain hit on Monday, they were able to install some drainage, mostly temporary to divert the rain. Also we received another truckload of boulders.

One of the boulders shows the drill hole from when it was quarried. I am tempted to ask Rob to make sure that it shows. What do you think? Hide it or show it?

The Wall Starts to Take Shape

The guys worked this Saturday, and worked hard. They made quite a lot of progress and you can really begin to see what the wall will look like. We knew it would be quite high, but wow. We really can't wait to see what this looks like when it's all put together.

Construction begins

We've spent so many weeks tearing things apart that it feels even better to have started to see them go back together again. It's going to be a long project, however, the stones by the back door are now in place.

Yesterday, I got to meet our foreman, Rob. With a project of this size, it's nice to get to work someone who instills such confidence.

What have we gotten ourselves into?

Tonight we got home from work to find that KGK has made a lot more progress. Yesterday I thought they had dug out as much as one could imagine, but today they kept digging. That's one huge pile of dirt!! I guess this really is going to be a full foundation. While it's shocking now, I'll bet this patio will last for years to come.

In addition to all of the excavation, the boulders that will comprise the retaining wall showed up. We asked for massive rocks, but I'm shocked

how big these rocks are. No doubt they will be able to hold the load of the patio.

Excavation!!!

It appears that while we were at work Rob and the KGK team made some huge progress. It looks like most of the excavation work is done and the dirt is in a huge pile. I suspect that we will be out of demolition phase before long and will be starting construction.

We have an outline

Today while we were at work, the folks from KGK showed up to get the lay of the land. They marked the location of the patio with some orange paint. We have a meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the last remaining details.

The last photo is a stitch of 3 photos from the bedroom window, so it's a bit distorted, but it probably gives the best idea of what we're thinking.

The stumps are gone too

Here the stumps from all the trees behind the house have been ground out. It's a complete mess, but it smells great.

Patio construction starts tomorrow. We're really excited to get started!!