Patio Days are a'comin'!

Yesterday Mike reached his breaking point with the back yard. He called me up and said, "Babe. I've had it. We're getting pavers tomorrow. Research. Talk to you later. Bye."

Like a good research assistant, I dutifully ran to my favorite store straight away and shopped their patio blocks, excited that a trip to Menards was sanctioned. I also stopped by Home Depot but was surprised at how atypically minimal their selection was.

And then today was the day! Yippee! After a tasty and hearty Mike-made breakfast, we set off.

Gosh, it took way longer than I anticipated to pick up all the materials.

It probably didn't help us that the Menards rental pick up truck was having tire issues while we were loading up. Or that a guy there wouldn't let us take our whole purchase with us in one trip due to the weight of everything. Or that my dearest wanted to shop their trees a bit, but hey, spending time with him while at Menards too......I was in girl heaven. Luckily the store is close and we easily made the two trips with time to spare on the truck rental. Yeah, we are good. Heh. :)

Lovely rear view vista while awaiting the tire filling of air

We chose some 16x24 patio blocks, got lots of bags of paver base and lots of bags of leveling sand. Plus a few ancillary items like hoses and such. Don't waste your cash on those expanding lightweight hoses as seen on tv, by the way. They are great for about ten minutes and then they break in fifteen different places, spewing water every which way but through the darn hose.

a portion of our Menards patio collection in the garage

Since it took longer than we had hoped to assemble the goods and we had a flash rain storm, we have to wait to start the install until Sunday. Siiiiiigghhh. I am really looking forward to getting this done. So much so I may start digging in the yard on my own over the next few days.

During my paver scouting trip, I came across a bunch of plants on a discount rack. I scored five little hostas for fifty cents a piece! What a bargain! Now I have to figure out where to plant them so they won't get trounced and destroyed by our tripedal.

Hailey is doing fantastically by the way, speaking of tripedals. She's been playing with her toys and almost-running around the yard like her old goofy self. I've been trying to figure out our post-chemo options to keep her healthy. It's pretty overwhelming and stressful and a bit upsetting all at the same time. The internet is clogged full of contradictory reading material. Go figure, right?!

Anyway, lots of smaller non-exciting projects on the docket until Sunday. I hope I won't bore you!