• Home
  • about emily
  • before + after
  • HGTV + DIY Network
  • good press
  • contact
  • Let’s Organize These Posts:

    • Art Attack
    • Backyard
    • Barn
    • Basement
    • Bathroom
    • Beach
    • Bedrooms
    • Being Thrifty
    • Business-y
    • Buying and Renting and Selling
    • Casual Celebrations
    • Closets
    • Curb Appeal
    • Dainty Details
    • Deck
    • Decor
    • Dining Room
    • DIY
    • Dog-Related
    • Entryway
    • Flooring
    • For the Kids
    • Garage
    • Gardening
    • Helping The Economy
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects
    • Holiday-Related Projects
    • Home Safety
    • Kitchen
    • Lighting
    • Living Room
    • Merry Travels
    • Office Space
    • Organized
    • Other Pads
    • Outdoor Living
    • Scooter Fun
    • Stairwell
    • Sunroom
    • Supporting Sponsors
    • The Art Room
    • Tools
    • Uncategorizable
    • Wedding
    • Windows
    • Work-pads
  • Search

  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

  • BROWSE POSTS BY CATEGORY:

    • Art Attack (7)
    • Backyard (92)
    • Barn (8)
    • Basement (27)
    • Bathroom (43)
    • Beach (13)
    • Bedrooms (73)
    • Being Thrifty (53)
    • Business-y (12)
    • Buying and Renting and Selling (23)
    • Casual Celebrations (36)
    • Closets (17)
    • Curb Appeal (44)
    • Dainty Details (8)
    • Deck (23)
    • Decor (286)
    • Dining Room (37)
    • DIY (577)
    • Dog-Related (24)
    • Entryway (59)
    • Flooring (58)
    • For the Kids (32)
    • Garage (17)
    • Gardening (70)
    • Helping The Economy (30)
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects (283)
    • Holiday-Related Projects (80)
    • Home Safety (12)
    • Kitchen (83)
    • Lighting (31)
    • Living Room (77)
    • Merry Travels (21)
    • Office Space (21)
    • Organized (41)
    • Other Pads (14)
    • Outdoor Living (12)
    • Scooter Fun (8)
    • Stairwell (20)
    • Sunroom (22)
    • Supporting Sponsors (43)
    • The Art Room (3)
    • Tools (43)
    • Uncategorizable (1)
    • Wedding (28)
    • Windows (14)
    • Work-pads (10)
  • Search

  • Pages

    • blog
    • Merrypad Features
    • Privacy Policy
    • about emily
    • before + after
      • before + after, our current home
      • before + after, our first house
    • contact me
    • choose a badge and share the merrypad.com love
  • Home
  • about emily
  • before + after
  • HGTV + DIY Network
  • good press
  • contact

The Future Mini Pat-Pat

August 13, 2012

I hope you liked the final patio reveal that I shared on DIY Network late last week! If you missed it, you can still check it out right here, and I’d suggest doing so before you dive into today’s post.

I did a lot of careful estimating when I was planning the flagstone patio, and most vendors suggested that we would need two full palettes of the irregular rocks to complete our 160 sq. ft. space. What I learned was that you can never truly plan for what you’re going to get.

Every stacked palette is a little bit different, and from what we observed on site at landscape shops and from our own palettes, the width, height, and overall shape of each of flagstone on a single palette can be completely random too. Furthermore, compared to some shops we visited, the two palettes that were delivered to our house by Northern Stone & Design Center were uber-substantial, not wimpy and small in any way.

Hello, big palettes of flagstone.

I mean, there were some really thick ones and that actually worried us initially because I had read that the thickness of the stones on a palette can greatly impact how much surface area your entire palette could cover. For instance, if a palette of 1″ stones could spread 200 sq. ft, and a palette of 2″ stones might only cover 90 sq. ft, and to complicate things, two design landscapers I spoke with guesstimated that a single palette would probably only cover 60-80 sq. ft. considering the thickness of the stones sourced.

Let it be known that we ordered two palettes, hoping fully for a giant palette of 1″ stones to cover a lot of ground, and that’s why the 3″ stones were concerning upfront. We worried that with so many 3″ stones, our chances of covering all 160 sq. ft space would be slim.

But I’ll get right down to it: Somehow, despite all aforementioned measurements, thickness considerations, and gnawed-short fingernails, when we were done with the patio, we still had all of these stones along the side of the garage…

Leftover flagstone pieces alongside the garage.

…AND this palette, filled with smaller pieces that we didn’t end up using:

Lots of leftover flagstone.

OK. Quite honestly, they’re not that small. In addition to some being narrow and tall, many flagstones are large and round and could cover some serious ground. If the scale isn’t completely obvious in this next picture, consider that some are as large as a round green turtle sandbox, and standing as high as my chest.

Lots of leftover flagstone.

All of these background deets are for good reason: Instead of trying to sell the unused palette of flagstone and assorted scraps (wherein we’d have hoped to make back our cost of $420) we’re going to put it to use on our own property and create a secondary little patio (a.k.a. our mini pat-pat, if the post title had you guessing).

Best of all, the materials have already been purchased and paid for, so it’ll be like getting a freebie patio! The ambition to use leftover materials to build things like a big ol’ treehouse, wooden planters and jewelry hooks, and entire paneled accent walls just runs through our veins at this point, so why not fling ourselves into a secondary patio project while the blisters are still fresh.

Fact: Our initial plan for a flagstone backyard detail was much more grand than what we’re going to end up with. Pete’s original plan called for something like this (a sketch which he artfully created using the iPad app Paper):

Patio designing via the Paper iPad app.

It had been a good plan for our available backyard space, but once we started looking at the pricing of flagstone palettes, we knew we could easily spend $3,000 in rock alone, and that just wasn’t in the cards this summer since we’re traveling a lot and, you know, saving for our wedding. Plus, and maybe most noteworthy, we had no idea how hard it was going to be to make a flagstone patio, and we’re pretty bad judges (or, I’m a pretty bad judge) when it comes to our DIY timelines, so instead of the week that we spent doing the 160 sq. ft. patio ourselves, a gigantic flagstone undertaking might have just taken us into the winter months (remember when I thought I could have the bathroom renovated in 4 days and instead it took almost two months?). Starting with the smaller patio was a good way to go, and now we know what we’re getting ourselves into with the second patio space.

Since we have so many leftovers, there’s just one other area in Pete’s sketch that we felt we really needed to focus on, that being the walkway between the deck and the gate to the driveway and garage.

Preparing a bad part of the yard for a new patio walkway.

It’s a project that’ll serve us and future homeowners well. It formalizes a path for foot traffic from the deck into the garage, it will solve muddiness issues, and just might give the dog a nice cool place to lay in the shade on sunny days. It’ll also be a good place to keep the Weber charcoal grill, and oh, there was one other thing if you didn’t notice: it was always really hard to grow grass in that area because of an enormous piece of cement left behind from a previous patio. The cement was completely submerged beneath about an inch of soil– deep enough to not be a hazard, and just close enough to the surface to ruin all attempts at growing grass. And yes, it has always looked just about as sad as it looks right here, complete with burnt grass marks from where the dog pees daily, lovely:

Preparing a bad part of the yard for a new patio walkway.

I discovered a lot of this leftover cement under the old deck when I took it down, just not pieces this big. Eerily, it looks more like a burial plot than a piece of cement here as Pete identified its dimensions and cleared soil off of the surface.

Cement block, or cement grave?

He reports the slab being heavier than his Subaru, but without breaking any bones or giving himself a hernia, he removed it with a 2×4 board lever system and brute strength.

So now, among the other projects that we’re taking on this month, we’ll also be aiming to complete a second little patio space while the weather’s nice.

Anyone else making good use of leftover materials with new projects around the house? Do share.

Share

Backyard  / Being Thrifty  / DIY

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

3 Comments


John@ Our Home from Scratch
August 13, 2012 at 9:22 am
Reply

I checked out the finished patio on DIY Network. Looks crazy good. I’m terrified of hardscaping. Everything is so darn heavy!



Elisa
August 14, 2012 at 9:03 am
Reply

Grass is overrated anyway, hah. Are you just doing a straight shot to the deck or giving it a bit of curve? Either way, your finished patio looks awesome – I’m sure this will too!



    Emily
    August 14, 2012 at 9:05 am

    We’re not totally sure about the size or shape yet! We were thinking originally that a nice curve from the gate to the deck would be great, but I think we’re still going to have a lot of stone left over if that’s all we do!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

  • Instagram

    Can’t believe I ever bought dumpling wrappers. 🥟 Pulse a few cups of flour in the food processor drizzling in cold water until it forms dough. Roll smooth. Use a conveniently large cookie cutter, or just trim out squares. The end ❤️ #hny #dumplings
    Didn’t think I’d be making more masks, but her Didn’t think I’d be making more masks, but here we are (now feat. recycled t-shirt layer for added softness and bonus-layer protection). #diy #amateurseamstress #diymask
    Get out there ☀️ Get out there ☀️
    The gang finally showed up. 👻 The gang finally showed up. 👻
    A record 233 cloves + 10 shallots 🧛🏻‍♀️ 
#merrypadathome #garden2021 #garlic #gardennotes #whatisnormal
    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    Immeasurably tall, lanky tomatillos. #garden2020 # Immeasurably tall, lanky tomatillos. #garden2020 #tomatillos #nofilter
    32 oz., reserved for the brave 🌶🌶 😍#homeg 32 oz., reserved for the brave 🌶🌶 😍#homegrown #tomatillos #harvest2020
    Nothing says “let’s stay home all fall, too” Nothing says “let’s stay home all fall, too” like a badass custom fireplace on our patio. 🔥 #chiminea #merrypadathome
    Load More... follow emily: @merrypad



  • Like Us On Facebook

    Facebook Pagelike Widget



  • Popular Posts

    • How to fix an IKEA drawer. Cheap IKEA Drawers (And The Quick Fix) 40.1k views
    • DIY sideboard rehab. Our Refinished Midcentury Buffet 39.7k views
    • How to design and make a barn quilt. How to Make Your Own Barn Quilt 33.3k views
    • DIY driveway removal. The Driveway Rocks 24.7k views
    • How to hang art on brick surfaces using specialty clips. The Easy Way to Hang Art on Brick or Stone 24.4k views
    • Goodbye, gold fireplace covering. Less Is More: How to Remove a Fireplace Surround 22.2k views
    • Our DIY flagstone patio. Building a Patio in One Day 17.4k views
    • Bedroom paint, freshened up with Snowbound paint. Painting Everything White: We Chose Snowbound, By Sherwin Williams 16.5k views
    • Tips for dying pasta different colors, and a Halloween Recipe for the kids. Tips for Dying Pasta Different Colors (+ A Special Halloween Recipe) 15.3k views
    • Finished stained kitchen cabinets. Javalicious, A Gel Staining Reveal (Update #3) 14.2k views



  • BROWSE POSTS BY CATEGORY:

    • Art Attack (7)
    • Backyard (92)
    • Barn (8)
    • Basement (27)
    • Bathroom (43)
    • Beach (13)
    • Bedrooms (73)
    • Being Thrifty (53)
    • Business-y (12)
    • Buying and Renting and Selling (23)
    • Casual Celebrations (36)
    • Closets (17)
    • Curb Appeal (44)
    • Dainty Details (8)
    • Deck (23)
    • Decor (286)
    • Dining Room (37)
    • DIY (577)
    • Dog-Related (24)
    • Entryway (59)
    • Flooring (58)
    • For the Kids (32)
    • Garage (17)
    • Gardening (70)
    • Helping The Economy (30)
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects (283)
    • Holiday-Related Projects (80)
    • Home Safety (12)
    • Kitchen (83)
    • Lighting (31)
    • Living Room (77)
    • Merry Travels (21)
    • Office Space (21)
    • Organized (41)
    • Other Pads (14)
    • Outdoor Living (12)
    • Scooter Fun (8)
    • Stairwell (20)
    • Sunroom (22)
    • Supporting Sponsors (43)
    • The Art Room (3)
    • Tools (43)
    • Uncategorizable (1)
    • Wedding (28)
    • Windows (14)
    • Work-pads (10)





  • a little bit of everything, friends, DIY, and inspiration

    • Dadand.com < My husband and his BFF
    • DIY Network
    • HGTV
  • Get Posts Via Email

  • Some Legal

    Merrypad incorporates the occasional affiliate link to Amazon.com and Minted; we link to many other websites and products, but if it is in context of a paid sponsorship, it is always noted as such. Please review the privacy policy and contact me if you have any additional questions.

    Theme customized by Pete Fazio Creative, the guy from dadand.com.


© Copyright Merrypad