Backyard patio project

This backyard patio project has been going on for perhaps a couple of months or so now - from leveling to laying pavers and now laying paving sand.  Instead of a vegetable garden (like what the previous owners had):

... we have decided to transform this section of the backyard into a patio area instead.  But first, we needed to get pavers!  And oh, the previous owners had removed all the vegetation and frames prior to moving out so that was one less thing to worry about.

I had recently downloaded a neighborhood app on my phone and managed to find a really good deal on pavers.  Only thing is we had to go pick it up - about 500-700 of it!  We didn't want to ruin the minivan so we decided to rent a truck.  Who knew there was actually a weight limit on these trucks.  And we obviously forgot to account into the weight of the driver a.k.a Bobby. Ha ha!

Now that we have the pavers unloaded to the front part of the house, we had to transport them towards the backyard.  Phew!!!  The boys were more occupied in making their walls. LOL!

Here we go! I started out just laying down one paver snug next to another.  Graham even built a little fireplace pit (bottom left side of photo below):

By the way, our patch of grass where the huge tree stump was, is slowly but surely coming along:

It was a bit tricky laying the pavers as the space was not very symmetrical as I later discovered.  I looked up for some ideas online and somehow managed to come up with a pattern that just might work!

Ta da!!!  Okay, not quite done but we are making progress!  Sort of used our apple tree as the starting point instead:

The whole process was a bit tricky because the ground was not very even and I only did so much to make it level.  Graham was out of school a few weeks ago with a cough and spent part of his morning sifting through some chunky soil with his badminton racket. This kid just thinks of the weirdest things to do:

Another trip to pick up more pavers although this time, there were no trucks available to rent. So we ended up loading the pavers into the minivan and even Daddy's little car.  2 trips later with the minivan and another couple of weeks later, the pattern is done! 

Just have to look past the unevenness. LOL!  Guess we will find out exactly how uneven it is once we actually put the patio furniture on it:

Graham and Charlie have been busy again building with leftover pavers:

By  the way, we used up the exact number of perfect pavers that we picked up from this neighbor/lady for this patio.  What a weird coincidence!!! And she even came by and told me how great it looked.  We actually offered some of our succulents for her landscaping project, so it's been working out quite well :-)

Now that the pavers are all set in place, we can start putting down paving sand.  We have only been picking up 6 sand bags at a time since it is so heavy.  It is definitely a good workout!

And since we don't have a proper brush, a broom will just have to do.  And a couple of weeks ago, Charlie was sick again so he was home helping me out in the backyard:

By the way, those poinsettias in the background are still looking quite sad and the new papaya trees I had recently bought and planted next to the poinsettias are look like they are on their way to Veggie Heaven!  Boo hooo...!!!

I'm not exactly sure how sick Charlie really is when he can jump around like this.  But it sure beats renting one of those machines to get the sand settling down into the pavers:

12 bags later and after the heavy rain, the sand has compacted and looks like we need more paving sand! 2 more bags to be exact.  And more rain came so the sand settled again. It is coming together!  We moved the patio furniture up this past weekend and thankfully the furniture is sitting pretty nicely - not too wobbly. Ha ha!  And we have moved the fire pit up as well, although covered up so rain water doesn't get in.  We can enjoy s'mores soon enough on this patio once the weather cooperates!

I have been working on moving some plants around. I thought this corner with the aloe vera looked like it was meant to be!

The aloes are starting to flower too.  So exciting!

I moved the bench that was under the grape vines to the back of the patio and moved some other ground cover/plants under the bench.  We'll see how the plants do there since it might not get enough sun.  Only time will tell:

We can now enjoy the view of the harbor even more since we are another few inches higher than what the previous garden was at.  And also enjoy our new umbrella! The blue patterns reminds me a little bit of the batik prints that are popular in my home-country of Malaysia:

By the way, what do you do with so many lemons???!

And an unexpected surprise in another part of our yard.  So pretty!

Woohooo...!!!  Now, onto the next project!  Hmmm... what will that be? There are so many on my list!  Oh wait, still have to work on the trench on the side of the house.  I actually emptied out all the pebbles from the drain today and moved the big pavers out of the way so I can dig up the trench even more.

And then, the forecast changed and it is raining again tonight!  So I had to quickly put everything back (some of the pebbles at least) so that the mud doesn't wash away into the neighbors.  Urgghhh...!!!  Well, "supposedly" all sunny the rest of the week.  Fingers crossed!