Throughout the week I prepped everything so that Matt and I could finish cutting the shapes around the exterior of the patio. Because I decided to make the pattern run 45 degrees from the house, we had to make a lot of cuts to finish it out.
The family left the cabin at 7 a.m. so that I could rent the 14 inch diamond blade wet saw required for this part of the project when they opened. After we found an outlet in the living room that wouldn't pop the GFI (the circuit in the garage wouldn't work), we started cutting (at about 10 a.m.). Luckily we didn't take too many breaks and Stacey picked us up lunch...because I made back to the rental place 7 minutes before they closed at 4 p.m. We made our last cuts with just a few minutes to spare. I let Matt run the saw and I marked some cuts but spent most of my time hammering in the pavers and making sure everything looked and fit correctly. Quite frankly, I knew he could make better cuts that I could.
After I got home I dumped a wheelbarrow full of sand on the patio and brushed it into the gaps between each paver. After awhile I got out the hose, got the area and remaining sand really wet, and shuffled my feet for about 15 minutes all around the patio. This made all of the sand settle and pack into the gaps as much as possible. I will probably need to make a second pass in the near future with more sand as the current layer settles and works its way down the gaps. The second time I'll use finer sand that will fill better. The coarser concrete sand that I also used on the base provides a better lock since the grains aren't round but doesn't fill as smoothly.
The structure is literally rock solid when I walk on it. It looks great and it should last for years. I'm going to paint the cement area between the patio and the siding and need to build the stairs (and paint them too), but for all intents and purposes the major phase and cornerstone of our backyard is complete. It only took 2 intelligent, strong young men 5-6 full days to complete. I say "only" as if it were easy.
When I finished I let out a big yell. This was a fun but really big project - one I hope I won't have to do again in the near future.
