We’ve had this plan for years to extend our patio and put in some gardens. That plan morphed into building a full-out lanai wired for electricity. The cost kept getting higher and higher.
After a couple years of this, I finally decided the hell with this and bought a $200 screened in tent to cover the table and chairs so we could eat without flies in our food. I figured $200 and the problem is solved well enough.
Except that the tent doesn’t fit on our existing patio.
So then I thought ok, we’ll just put down some pavers and make the patio bigger. But then the question was, what do we do with the fire pit if the tent is in the way? So I thought, ok, we’ll make it a little bigger.
This is around the point when I brought ChatGPT into it and my friends, AI just doesn’t care.
With my artificial friend, I came up with a plan to expand the patio that cost a sum of money I will not disclose publicly and amounted to 10.6 tons of paver materials.
This 10.6 tons of paver materials was moved from the driveway to the backyard in two days. I did 80% of it myself. I realized by the end of that weekend that I had grossly underestimated the size and scope of this project and that we had gone a very long way past the origital $200 patio tent plan. Also, every part of my body hurt, all the way down to my fingers and toenails.
The good news is the rest of the project isn’t constrained by a time limit, so we’re in good shape. So I started digging.
I found many things underground including old tile, cement blocks, roots, and The Root That Owns All The Other Roots. This root was four inches thick and sixteen feet long. It was a moral dilemma because it seemed to be attached to a very nice oak tree not too far away.
We consulted the highest authorities and ultimately decided to cut it out.
As it turns out, we think the root may have actually been attached to a pine tree we cut down a couple years ago because pieces of it just broke away without the saw. I sure hope so!
I finished digging – or thought I did. I decided to check YouTube for instructions on the next step and apparently I have to dig another six inches around the outer perimeter to make room to stake down the edging. It seems the digging may never end. Don’t care. I’m in for the long haul!
Year in Photos 