Renovating our laundry room was just one of the many things we wanted to accomplish during our time home. Part 2 was our back patio. When we moved into our home 9 years ago we added on to the existing patio just to expand out the area a bit more. However, as the years passed we found that we weren't really 100% happy with our patio. It was basic pavers that we didn't really like and weeds and other plants started growing through all the spaces. I was getting tired of having to pull weeds constantly. (I am not one for gardening or any outdoor activities that involve plants so I was definitely over this job).
We had talked about redoing our patio for quite some time but there was always something more important and let's face it, there was never really the time. It served its purpose and that was enough for us.
Once we were in quarantine, suddenly things that we went everyday just living with were starting to bother us (thus the reason for renovating our laundry room). After we completed that first project we were excited to start the next one. After all, we had the momentum of home improvements and we wanted to keep that going. What better project to take care of when the weather is nice than something outdoors. So it was decided we would redo our patio.
My husband and I are very hands on people when it comes to our home improvements. We have a lot of ideas and want to do things most of the time ourselves (once again I mention the laundry room) but when it came to the patio we figured that we would have someone come and do it for us. It was a big project and it would go faster having someone come in (and plus, by the time we were ready NY was in Phase 1 where construction was open back up so that was a plus).
We started by figuring out whether we wanted pavers or poured concrete. It was a tough decision because I was a little skeptical about pavers. I was not ready to put down a paver patio only to have to keep weeding like I had before. On the other hand I was not a fan of concrete for fear it would look like a sidewalk or something. My husband and I went back and forth looking at samples and trying to decide what would be best. We had several people come to give us estimates so we could properly decide.
I had all but decided on doing poured concrete (mainly because my husband convinced me it wouldn't look like a sidewalk and we can stamp and tint it to look like stone) when we came across a picture of these gorgeous pavers by Cambridge called Timber Stone Pavers and I fell in love. My husband oddly enough found the same ones I did and also fell in love. It was fate! We went back and forth with the company we were going to have do our patio and after much deliberation finally came to the decision that it was what we wanted and the decision was made.
The one thing we didn't count on was how painstaking the process would be to create the pattern. (Yes, we took on this task ourselves. After all, we had to look at it everyday and we wanted to be happy with it.) We wanted it to look random even though it really wasn't. Seams couldn't line up and we had a certain amount of each color and size to work with. It was like a difficult puzzle to solve and it hurt our heads. We tried option after option to continued failure but after several days of trial and error we figured it out. We also opted to have a wall at the end of the patio to enclose the area a bit while also creating a little seating area.
The renovation took about 2 weeks start to finish. There were some minor snags along the way and weather was our enemy a few days but overall it was a pretty painless process (if you take out creating the pattern. LOL!). There is something so satisfying about seeing a project through from start to finish and we are very happy with the final result. Our final step is to get new patio furniture to complete the look. We are looking forward to host some quarantine safe gatherings!