Dirty Details

Part of our day yesterday was spend pouring the last section of extension on our north side slab.  We wanted the extension to go all the way along the original slabs so we could walk on that area when we wanted to throw something into the garbage.

We laugh that we are finally getting good at pouring concrete again... just in time to not have to do it anymore until next year.

The last section of the slab extension starts
to cure within the frame.

Next year also will bring us time to add pavers both to the front yard and to the area between this north side slab and the fence.  With pavers here, we finally permanently will be free of the mud on this side of the house.

We discovered today what we had feared: the edge of the patio is not high enough for adequate rain run-off in certain areas.  We will have to grade the yard down and away from the patio, or we might just add a drain along the front of the slab to handle the water.  That is a decision that also will wait until we return in the fall.

The mismatched patio blocks, gathered from
various parts of the back yard, give us a path
along the north side of the house. For now,
they work.

Today we took care of the dirty details of our north side work.  We wanted to put the displaced patio blocks that have served in various paths for years and use them for the next year on the north side of the house.  These same old patio blocks will give us a solid surface on which to walk during wet weather.  We filled in the dirt around the lip of the newly poured slab extensions and leveled the remaining area to lay in the patio blocks.  This temporary solution should work well for us until next year.

Our final project for this winter season will be to construct the small plastic shed that we purchased to house some of the larger machines from the garage.  We should wait until Wednesday, but if I know my impatient husband, he will have it built by this time tomorrow.  Time will tell...