The Patio that Stole Our Summer Freetime

Last fall, when LL and I celebrated our 10th anniversary, he decided that since we had a newborn and wouldn't be going on any big trips, we should make a patio.  But since our anniversary is in the fall and it was a big project, we didn't start it until this summer.  And if you know LL at all, you know that nothing can ever be simple and easy.  His whole motto about life is "go big or go home," so our patio project quickly morphed from being a place to put a picnic table and eat to a large patio with a fire place, pizza oven,  and field stone retaining wall and bench.

Y'all.  It took us allllllllll summer, working with a contractor, and ate up all of our weekends, evenings, and any other free time we had.

We started by bulldozing the area flat and leveling it off.  Then we had to pick thousands of field stones from the farm's fields, and set the wall  deep enough that the frost wouldn't be able to get underneath them.  And we had to pour a concrete foundation for the fireplace. And once all of the stonework was done, we needed to lay the granite counter tops, lay the patio stones and run the electric for lights. Whew! A picture is worth a thousand works, so here is the progress!

We started with bulldozing the yard.

And we used an excavator to even things out, and then used a tractor with cement mixer attachment to pour the foundation for the pizza oven and fireplace.  Trey and cousin Amelia LOVED watching the machinery!

Our kids were in heaven playing in the giant dirt piles created.  My Tractor Man couldn't wait to get his diggers in that dirt!

Then we had to gather all of the stones from the fields, lay all of the stones, and later fill in each and every crack with mortar (called "pointing.")

 Helping Uncle Andy lay the beginnings of our retaining wall and bench! We had to dig and lay stone several feet under ground, so the frost wouldn't be able to get underneath it and move the stone.

Big Helper.

The wall taking shape! And cute cousins Collette and Tabby sitting on it. 

 After we got the retaining wall to the above-ground level, we started to work on the wood burning pizza oven.  The open part underneath is to store wood, and the raised part on the side is for a counter top for pizza prep. 

Pizza oven going in! 

Ta-da!

We ended up ordering two small pieces of granite for the counter for the pizza oven. Granite was actually the cheapest of the outdoor, all-weather counter tops we looked at! We got a piece for the counter, and a small piece for the very front of the oven. 

Uncle Andy taught Trey how to use hand motions to signal the skid loader, back-filling behind the pizza oven and wall.

Everyone loved the equipment, even Elliott!

 Once the pizza oven was complete, we started on the fireplace!

 The fireplace is so big that they ended up using the skid loader bucket as a ladder to lay stones, and to get the mantle stone in place.  All of the stones are from the farm, and the mantle stone is an old corner stone from one of the barns. 

The decorative tiles on the face of the fireplace are silo tiles from a silo LL's great grandfather built. 

After the fireplace was finished, and we did lots and lots of pointing to fill in all of those stones, it was time to lay the tiles! Those we did purchase from a building supply company. 

 Collette loved the "runway" path leading from our house out to the patio.  She said, "Mommy! Pretend we are in a fashion show and this is where I walk!"

Once the stones were down, the kids immediately discovered that they finally had a flat surface to ride their toys and bikes on! (No sidewalks or paved driveways out in the country!)

And we got to work making pizzas. 

And having fires.

And generally just loving hanging out in our new space.

The view of the finished patio from the second story of our house!

Just to give you an idea of the size of the patio, LL had a surprise birthday party for me and invited many of our friends from church. We probably had 40+ people come, and still had room on the patio. 

I wish I had kept track of how many hours we worked on the patio, but the end result is amazing!!

Even though I love going on vacations, I am loving our patio even more.  We will be able to enjoy spending time with family and friends outside for years to come!