from the sidewalk to the stairs I'm never gonna settle
Sometime last year, Xuth and I agreed that we wanted to create a pathway next to our driveway that would serve as a way to reach the house when the driveway was in use that did not involve walking over the yard (or through snow, in the winter). After pondering a variety of options, including browsing paver patterns online and in hardware stores, and not finding anything that caught both our eyes and seemed doable and durable, we came across the idea of getting plain, cheap, concrete pavers, and coloring them ourselves. With that idea in mind, a bit more searching let me discover Patio Paint, and a plan emerged.
So! In September, after a couple months of browsing Google images for interesting, paintable geometric patterns, ordering all the materials, and getting a ton(1) of concrete and rock delivered to our driveway, I started work.
Step 1: Paint 52 paver stones. 15 of them in interesting ways. I actually only did 14 of those; Justin did the one with curvy lines.
Q. How'd you get those amazingly straight lines?
A. A ton(2) of painter's tape.
Because mom asked for it, here is a gif-loop of one of the stones. Yes, the work done between shots increases as the painting progresses, because I was impatient. Yes, I was humming the theme song while painting. For those who want to see the progress much more slowly: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. If you look very carefully at the progression from 6-8 you can see where I made a mistake in the pattern (then fixed it). To the right is a collection of all the squares, painting completed.
Step 2: Dig a ditch. 29 feet (minus a few inches from the sidewalk curve) x 4" down (from the driveway curb, which was more like 4-8" down from current lawn level 25" out into the yard) = way the heck too much dirt, all of which needed to be put somewhere else. The picture is after we'd already disposed of a ton(3) of dirt elsewhere in the yard. Since we were building through the front flower garden, this step also included digging up four bags of lilies (I attempted to preserve the crocuses) and relocating one hedge plant. Finally, at the very end of the driveway there was some excess curb concrete where I needed to lay pavers, so Jim angle-grinded out some chunks to make more space.
Step 3: Lay paver base (because I'm all about that base, paver base, no sand yet).
Step 4: Level, add sand, level, tamp down, level, (repeat 1-5 as necessary), place pavers. Get Jim to saw through five pieces on the ends to fit the angle of our street walk and the curve of our front walk. This step (the laying, not the cutting) took a very long time because I'm not practiced at getting things perfectly level. It didn't end up perfect, either, of course, but I did get tired enough to say "good enough." I couldn't find our level for the first third, so I eyeballed it and got a slight uphill slant. Then I found the level and made the next bit pretty flat. Then I realized our driveway wasn't flat, so the final third slants up again. And some of the blocks still wobble despite my best efforts. Hopefully they will flatten out a little in time.
Step 5: Put down landscape edging to secure things a little and backfill in dirt.
Annnnnd, fin.
Another view, from the porch roof.
Animated progression from the porch. Or, if you like to take things more slowly:
(sorry, have to use your imagination)
Total cost was about $350 in materials and a whole lot of time, stress, and muscle, mostly by me.
(1) Yes, a literal ton
(2) NOT a literal ton
(3) see (1)
So! In September, after a couple months of browsing Google images for interesting, paintable geometric patterns, ordering all the materials, and getting a ton(1) of concrete and rock delivered to our driveway, I started work.
Step 1: Paint 52 paver stones. 15 of them in interesting ways. I actually only did 14 of those; Justin did the one with curvy lines.
Q. How'd you get those amazingly straight lines?
A. A ton(2) of painter's tape.
Because mom asked for it, here is a gif-loop of one of the stones. Yes, the work done between shots increases as the painting progresses, because I was impatient. Yes, I was humming the theme song while painting. For those who want to see the progress much more slowly: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. If you look very carefully at the progression from 6-8 you can see where I made a mistake in the pattern (then fixed it). To the right is a collection of all the squares, painting completed.
Step 2: Dig a ditch. 29 feet (minus a few inches from the sidewalk curve) x 4" down (from the driveway curb, which was more like 4-8" down from current lawn level 25" out into the yard) = way the heck too much dirt, all of which needed to be put somewhere else. The picture is after we'd already disposed of a ton(3) of dirt elsewhere in the yard. Since we were building through the front flower garden, this step also included digging up four bags of lilies (I attempted to preserve the crocuses) and relocating one hedge plant. Finally, at the very end of the driveway there was some excess curb concrete where I needed to lay pavers, so Jim angle-grinded out some chunks to make more space.
Step 3: Lay paver base (because I'm all about that base, paver base, no sand yet).
Step 4: Level, add sand, level, tamp down, level, (repeat 1-5 as necessary), place pavers. Get Jim to saw through five pieces on the ends to fit the angle of our street walk and the curve of our front walk. This step (the laying, not the cutting) took a very long time because I'm not practiced at getting things perfectly level. It didn't end up perfect, either, of course, but I did get tired enough to say "good enough." I couldn't find our level for the first third, so I eyeballed it and got a slight uphill slant. Then I found the level and made the next bit pretty flat. Then I realized our driveway wasn't flat, so the final third slants up again. And some of the blocks still wobble despite my best efforts. Hopefully they will flatten out a little in time.
Step 5: Put down landscape edging to secure things a little and backfill in dirt.
Annnnnd, fin.
Another view, from the porch roof.
Animated progression from the porch. Or, if you like to take things more slowly:
(sorry, have to use your imagination)
Total cost was about $350 in materials and a whole lot of time, stress, and muscle, mostly by me.
(1) Yes, a literal ton
(2) NOT a literal ton
(3) see (1)