{"id":31403,"date":"2020-08-11T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T07:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=31403"},"modified":"2020-08-11T00:01:13","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T07:01:13","slug":"shabby-old-patio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/shabby-old-patio\/","title":{"rendered":"We’re Putting Our Shabby Old Patio Out of Its Misery — At Last. Sheltering at Home Week 22"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"shabby-old-patio\"<\/a>
Deferred maintenance at our house — our shabby old patio will finally get a redo. Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Monday, August 10, 2020. Sheltering at Home Week 22<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our patio was not a pretty sight when we first laid eyes on it.<\/p>\n

Forty-two years later, it’s still not a pretty sight.<\/p>\n

The Arizona sandstone has been cracked and moldy from the get-go. And all this time, the half of the patio that was set in sand has been sinking and parting company with the half that was embedded in concrete.<\/p>\n

Despite its shabbiness, our patio has seen some action over the years. Kids spread out their toys here. He-Man defeated Skeltor on its moldy surface. A gift of ice cream, delivered while we were out of town, melted and left a permanent butter fat stain next to the welcome mat.<\/p>\n

\"shabby<\/a>
The flagstones that were set on sand are sinking and pulling away from the stones set in concrete.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And now, home-bound as we are by the coronavirus, with no place but our front yard and our back yard to go, Jon and I find ourselves looking at that shabby old patio. We look at it lot.<\/p>\n

We see it for the crumbly deferred maintenance mess it has been for decades.<\/p>\n

Wobbly Cocktails<\/strong><\/h5>\n

You can’t walk on it safely, let alone put a table and chairs out there and invite your neighbors over for wobbly, socially-distanced cocktails.<\/p>\n

It’s time to do something about that patio. And, thanks to the pandemic, there is time<\/em> to do something about that patio.<\/p>\n

\"Salvaging-Arizona-sandstone-flagstones<\/a>
Our neighbor dug up some of the Arizona sandstone and took it to his yard, where he’ll build a rustic patio on a level spot under a tree. Can these stones be cleaned up? I’d like to know.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s time to locate a reliable contractor. (The hardest part.) Time to sweat out the plans. Time to consider the costs.<\/p>\n

The sky-high, 21st-century, West Coast costs!<\/p>\n

It’s stunning. Jon and I will be spending more on redoing this patio and stairs than my parents spent on an entire house back in 1953 (the year after our own house was built).<\/p>\n

But we’re going ahead with the project. Decision made.<\/p>\n

Neighbor to the Rescue<\/strong><\/h5>\n

A neighbor from down the street came by yesterday to rescue the loose flagstones before they could be sent to the dump.<\/p>\n

\"new-flagstone-patio\"
Our neighbor took this photo of his DIY patio — and the Arizona sandstone flagstones he rescued from our front yard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Men with sledge hammers and a mega jackhammer arrived this morning to decimate the old concrete base.<\/p>\n

Three more weeks of dust, noise, and a porta-potty out front, and we’ll have ourselves a patio and wobble-free cocktails.<\/p>\n

Another look at our front yard at “Look What Happened in My Front Yard Over the Weekend.”<\/a>\u00a0 More ideas for patios and stairs<\/a> on my Pinterest page. Another story about householding at “Feng Shui Tips for the Bedroom and the Writing Room — Your Mother’s Not Allowed.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"jackhammering-concrete<\/a>
The crew arrived with a jackhammer and made short work of the concrete base under our patio. The sandstone had turned gray over the years. Notice how pink the split open piece is.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"shabby-old-patio\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our shabby old patio was a mess when we first laid eyes on it forty-two years ago. Today, it’s still not a pretty sight. Time for a redo.\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,41],"tags":[2179,2335,34,472,1188,2288,2336,2182,2337],"class_list":["post-31403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","category-sheltering-at-home-chronicles","tag-coronavirus","tag-deferred-maintenance","tag-dont-miss","tag-garden","tag-house","tag-landscaping","tag-patio","tag-remodel","tag-sandstone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}