Signs of Spring

It is almost April, and there are some sure signs of spring at the Knight house! We have daffodils blooming...


plenty of muddy mud boots...
cherry trees blossoming...

and mysterious bulbs emerging.
But the best sign of spring at the Knights is this:

That is right! It is time to tackle our home improvement projects! I could not find any pictures of the before, but, just outside our dining room sliding doors was a covered patio. It was just a concrete slab. Kinda boring! We had been entertaining the idea of framing it in, putting in electric, heating, etc and creating an addition. We figured out that that project had the potential of costing us about $10,000. Yikes! Way too much!

So instead, we thought it would be fun to extend the patio and make a kick-booty outdoor area. The first task was to dig out where we will be extending the patio out too. Because we decided to lay flagstone on top of the concrete slab, we have to pour concrete on the rest of the new patio area. Which means we have to dig tons of dirt, lay about 3 inches of gravel, about 1 inch of sand, and then pour about 3 inches of concrete. Did I say fun? What I meant to say was back-breaking, time-consuming, dirty, and tiring.

Josh and I basically dug non-stop for about four hours Saturday, and we are pretty much done. Just a bit of leveling and raking and then we can pour the gravel.

Also, I got my garden area planned out, dug, and almost lined. I have to wait till after we complete the patio till I can pour my dirt and plant.

Here are some more pictures from the day.

And here are some Internet pictures of what a flagstone patio looks like.