Pool Patio Makeover- How We Doubled the Space

There were other issues as well: like popping pavers no longer flush and wily weeds that dotted the landscape. I should add that we love the pool, use it often, and are very grateful to have it, but did also hope to entertain there. So, with misgiving and self-doubt, we undertook the patio project. Mind you, we did price out all our options first – stone, new pavers, and poured concrete. Each was more than we’d expected (naturally) or could rationalize spending.

Onward. We began by pulling up every last paver.

There are a lot of very sweaty, dirty details you needn’t know. Above, we had just started to mortar in new stones around the pool to prevent frost heave around the bullnose edge securing the liner. Below, we’ve created a muddy mess. Where the fence ends is where the old patio ended, abruptly. The dirt below is the now cleared land to be readied for gravel.

Many wheelbarrows of gravel later, we have tamped down the area and readied for sand. More wheelbarrows of sand, tamped down again, then leveled with a level and multiple leveling strings in every direction! We were constantly getting caught up in these strings and losing our footing. Sorry not to have a photo of that!

Long story made short: after purchasing a few hundred more matching pavers, trucking in loads of gravel and sand, and multiple pieces of rented machinery, we relaid all of them, extending the patio another 13 x 25 square feet. We doubled our patio size. New and old pavers were intermingled, so as not to draw attention to the fact that part of the patio was new.

It was a grueling and aggravating project (because of course we undertook it at the start of the pool season, in the heat) but the pay-off was truly worth it and had we waited to have it done professionally, we’d be waiting until our kids were grown. We researched the job online and tried to follow the instructions to the letter, as best we could. It certainly isn’t perfect and a professional would surely attest to that, but we’re not entertaining any professional masons, so its a non-issue.

Having extended the patio, we subsequently had to extend the fencing as well. It always seems that every move we make, every step we take .. is dependent on another task being completed first. Scope creep is real. With more space comes more opportunity for entertaining. The first is what is commonly referred to as a chat area. I call it a lounge area (more accurate depiction of how we use it). After many price comparisons, we purchased this set online. These outdoor sectionals aren’t cheap but we decided to regard the expense as money saved, having done the job ourselves.

This set is possibly one of the best furniture purchases we’ve made, maybe next to our living room couch that we’ve lived in for the last ten years. Couches and lounges – clearly that says a lot about our lifestyle, and were this a different type of blog, we might want to explore that. It’s not. We do applaud ourselves often though for our smart purchase.

The rug too, in my opinion, makes the space more cohesive. I found this one at Hayneedle.  Amazon and Wayfair also have loads of options.

The second area of the new patio is utilized for eating. My husband had long envisioned building a cedar farm table that would, with age, patina to a natural grey. So, we filled the back corner of the patio with his table and two bench masterpiece. It’s oversized, like the crowd we expected to pack in. New last summer, its still got it’s golden hue.

While we had use of a rented Kubota last summer to tackle the patio, we took advantage of it, searching the yard for things we needed moved, plowed, or overturned. With the Kubota and a trencher attachment, we dug a trench the length of the pool, from the pool house to the far end, on the outside of the fence and ran electrical conduit. I then turned the conduit and ran it under the fence, through my flower bed and through the stone wall, to the patio (pictured here).

What for, you ask? Nothing, yet. A project for another day – the hope being that eventually we’ll actually connect that wire to… electricity. We’ll then have run electricity from the pool house to the back corner patio for .. whatever. To charge my phone perhaps, but just maybe, for that built-in kitchen that I’ve imagined since Matt Blashaw first dangled it in front of me. Blog for another day.

This patio project was laborious and we may have sworn aloud, or at each other, under every breath, but we knew it was only the heat exhaustion talking. And like all awful things, it passes and we forget how peeved we were in the moment. Were it different, we’d each be an only-child.

This undertaking, sweat and swears aside, was absolutely worth the investment of time and money we sunk into it. A professional is preferred: duh. When that isn’t a realistic option though, there are still options. Don’t despair and…don’t wait on Matt; he’s unreliable.

Lisa