Lots of work since the last entry. As I mentioned last time we had just got the sand (crushed rock actually) for the back patio. A few days after that we started leveling the area where the paving stones should go.

The amount of sand that went in at first had me wondering if we would run out before the whole thing was done. But it wasn’t necessary to put it in so thick everywhere. I had planned that it would be about 5cm thick over about 47 square metres and that turned out to be a pretty good estimate. Laying the stones was pretty nasty work, much harder than we thought and it seemed to go on for days. Carting them around the house in the wheelbarrow took long enough, but it also turns out that the paving stones are up to 5mm or more different in height. So it didn’t matter how level or smooth the sand was, many stones had to be individually set to get some sort of smooth surface.

So it was slow going for most of it. But the more that went in the better it looked.

Just as well really, cos we were getting pretty sick of laying those stones… That first weekend it was nearly 30 in our yard and we both had a head cold. The rest of the week it went down in bits and pieces.

This weekend we had visitors. Pia’s parents were here and gave us a hand with carrying the paving stones around. With the extra help the last part of the patio went down quite fast. Next up after that was the garden. The brickwork for the garden went up quite quickly, just an hour for the basic walls. But that dirt took a while. There is something like 7 cubic metres of dirt in there, or about 50 wheelbarrow loads. With Risto helping we managed to just under half fill it on Saturday. Sunday we had a bit of a rest, but after Risto and Lea went back home we managed another few wheelbarrow loads more to get just over half full.

Tonight after work we did another few hours and filled the whole thing and also finished off the brickwork.

Now we should buy some plants to put in it.