Ground Raising and Patio Project

For the past two months while we have been ordered to stay at home during the COVID-19 pandemic we have been working on several backyard projects. The first was raising the ground up around the back and sides of our house so the water won't drain towards the house anymore.

We raised the back up with sand and packed it down. Then we filled the rest with dirt dug out from the area our new patio will be going. We had to make sure the dirt was packed down to slope down and away from the house. 

Then we placed bricks on top of the sand to help keep moisture away from the foundation and to make it look nicer.

Filling in the spaces with the sod that we had cut out.

A few weeks later and it was looking much better.

These pics were taken about a month ago but it looks even better today.

Then we immediately began digging out for a new patio. Since we had closed in our previous patio a few years ago and made it into an office the only patio we had left was the little 4' x 6' pad outside our sliding door. It was barely big enough to hold our garbage and recycle bins. The new patio is approximately 18.5' x 11' and we are really enjoying it! We started these two projects on March 21st and finished the last weekend of April, which was Charlotte's birthday weekend (she turned 6).

Cutting out the grass.

Watching daddy break up the small patio pad.

This was actually when the boys were breaking up dirt to get dirt for out first project but we also had to dig up this area for the patio so it was really for both projects.

Both Jack and Garrett had fun using this tool.

Curtis's sister Shauna and her husband John came over to help set forms for pouring concrete.

Before we could do concrete we had to bring in some gravel and pack it down. Renting machines for this project was totally worth it!

We borrowed my grandma's trailer to bring in the gravel. I love how hard the 3 oldest kids worked on this project. It was a blessing in disguise being forced to stay home because of the pandemic. These kids are learning to work!

Packing down the gravel.

Towards the end of packing gravel when we had most of the gravel off the trailer  (we used the rented to trailer to get more gravel after we ran out) the two girls jumped in to help shovel gravel into the wheel barrow. They were so cute!

Last minute we decided to dig out the grass right here by our garage and add more concrete pads for our dumpsters to sit on.

Pouring day was April 24th!

My dad came prepared to get dirty.

It was fun to watch John work and to see how this whole process is done.

Nikki had the honors of leaving our mark in the concrete.

Nikki is definitely our artist. I love it!

Done with concrete, now to wait for it to dry. Thank you John and Shauna!

Concrete was poured on a Friday and so the next day we took off the forms and spent the day rerouting and fixing the sprinkler pipes.

John came over and cut the line into the concrete two days after we poured (it was on Charlotte's birthday).

We love our new patio! It's so much bigger!

We're so glad we added these pads last minute.