The Final Paver...for Now

At 10:40 AM today, Rick placed the final paver in our north side paver project. Hooray!

Stacks of pavers awaited our attention early this morning.

We started at 7:30 this morning.  While he brought sand back to fill in and to level the last walkway around the cement patio, I set up the saw and started to stage some of the pavers.  My back actually felt better today for whatever reason, so working was not all that difficult.

We left off the final row, knowing we could
cut the one paver if we had to in order to have
enough for the whole project.

We filled in the first few rows of pavers but held off with the final row to make sure that we had enough pavers to fill in the pattern.  We could have stopped a row short, but actually we filled in the whole pattern and still have enough pavers left over for another small project.

The saw was invaluable to cut pavers around
the fence posts and around the drain area.

A trip to the Paver Warehouse this afternoon left us feeling good.  They told us that if we sealed the pavers, which we intended to do anyway, that we would not have to buy polymeric sand.  We have lots of base sand left over, so they said to use that instead of the polymeric sand, and to just seal the pavers once the sand is tamped into place.  We are happy to be able to use the left-over sand.

We had more than enough pavers to finish the
complete pattern and to give our walkway
a defined edge.

Our project was the wrong size in the fact that if we had ordered out just two pallets of pavers, we would not have had enough to finish the area we wanted to cover; however, three pallets have left us with enough to do another small project.

We have enough left-over pavers to pave a small area
in front of the back yard sheds.  That will make rolling items
into the sheds easier, and the pavers will help keep the mud out
of the sheds also.

We are getting the tamper tomorrow and will have it for the weekend.  We plan on getting the sand tamped into the pavers and to seal them this weekend while the weather is still dry.  Then, since we have the tamper here, we might dig out a small area (12 feet by 32 inches) in front of the sheds in the back yard.

We think that we have enough paver base left over that we can fill it in.  We know that we will have sand left over that we can use, and Rick calculated that if we pave the area in front of the sheds, we should have only seven pavers left in the end.  That is what I call utilizing our assets!

If we have the time and the energy, we would like to get that area dug out.  Then we can fill in the base, tamp it down, add the sand, lay the pavers, add the sand fill, tamp that down, and seal the top. Whew! After that, I sincerely hope we are finished with our projects for the year.

Yes, we still have the maintenance items to complete.  Rick has to put a second coat of paint on the back wall where we had the electrical meter removed.  I still have lots of leaves to rake up and to take to the curb, but those are not major tasks.  Houses always need maintenance.  We hope we are now to the point where a little work will keep Gladys looking great, and we can spend some time just enjoying some of our other interests while in Florida.