Paving 25 Square Meters

I don't know very much about landscaping.  I have one book on gardening, and apparently don't watch the right DIY programs to learn about how to make the yard look nice.

Also, landscaping is expensive.

I have made so many mistakes on the landscaping during the extension.  Some mistakes cost money, some time.  One not so brilliant idea I had was to put in a french drain along the patio.  (We're extending the patio out about a meter, and I was worried the water would pool as it butts up against the grass, which is a slightly higher elevation.)

Niall (tricked by me) and I dug a trench and I bought a perforated pipe (£15).  But after talking with the Ground Works guys, they told us not to bother, and leave the patio with a gradual slope toward the new extension instead of digging it all out to run into the grass.  I filled in the trench with gravel/hardcore mix and chalked it up to another lesson learned.



The new back patio is costing a fortune.  We are laying it, in part, for a new shed, since we lost our garage to make way for the extension.  It'd read on quotationcheck.com that it should cost about £1250 to get the work done.  I thought I could surely get the work done for less than that.  Ha!  Right now we're sitting at about £2100.  What a fool!  The supplies alone are £850, plus almost £200 to get rid of the waste.  If we did the job all by ourselves, we could have done it for a little over £1K.  But I could have been digging for a month.  And I can't even lift one of the pavers on my own, let along lay 45 of them!

As a reminder, the area with the paving used to have some random weeds and trees.

And then it all got pulled out.

So we used to be at this point.

And then finally paving!  Do you know what this picture represents?  So much grief and now...happiness!

We lost the garage, and needed a shed.  We decided 8' x10' was the right size and luckily picked up a decent ex-display wooden apex workshop for £500.

The wood wasn't treated and need to be right away.  Cue the child labor.

Ahh!  Water right storage!

So, in conclusion, costly project, but happy with the results. And when the weather and extension conditions are better, we'll work on the rest of the garden.