It sure would be nice to open a door, step out and not be in sand, dirt or mud or walking on a packing skid sidewalk. And we finally did it. We brought back our favorite concrete guys to form up, pour and stamp the patio and walkway around the house.
Above, forms in place, earth compacted and soaked down and house wrapped in plastic to protect the siding from splashing ..and here comes the first truck full of concrete.
The concrete is moved wheelbarrow load by wheelbarrow load, "sloshed and jiggled around" (my terminology, sorry :-) and then smoothed out and expansion joints cut in. The concrete is also sloped slightly so that water will drain off. We do get the occasional rain shower here after all...
The concrete starts to harden and the stamps are applied, turning and rotating as they go so that the slate-like pattern never repeats. Color is sprayed on and allowed to dry and a sealer is applied. We also get a personal touch: fossil like impressions of cedar and sword fern.
Here's the final product.
The texture and color suit our house to a "T"...
and after a year we have a walkway to the front door!
The last part of landscaping will be about plants and a planting scheme. There are so many trees, shrubs and perennials that I have yet to learn about and I want low maintenance gardens, so this will be a long process tackling one part of the yard at a time. Stay tuned.
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