Holy Shoveling Batman

When this arrived at my house…

…I had no idea what I was in for. However, since it was the first time I’d ever had a dump truck delivery, I was kind of excited (in a sick, masochistic way of course).

If you remember, we last left off with the yard looking less patio like and more random-hole-in-the-ground-esque.

I ordered 3 cubic yards of gravel and 1 cubic yard of leveling sand. I had been warned that the delivery fee might be pretty hefty (from neighbors who had tackled their own patio project), so I decided to get the sand and gravel in one load. For some reason I thought there would be a partition in the truck. Turns out the sand came out first and was quickly followed by 3 times as much gravel. At least the order was right. It ended up working out ok, but in hind sight I would see if there was a better option. I definitely don’t recommend this route.

After shoveling, shoveling, and more shoveling, I had laid enough gravel to bring my height to 3″ below my twine. But I knew I’d have to tamp it, so I added another inch or so and raked it fairly even. Now you know I’m not usually a complainer, and I’m not trying to discourage you from doing a project like this on your own….but I’m keeping it real. It’s not the shoveling that gets you, it’s the tamping. The tamper itself weighs about 15 lbs. What ensues is about 5000 bicep curls as I beat the ground with the awkward metal square on a stick.

Meanwhile, the cat looks on- no help at all.

Finally, I called it quits for the day after I felt like everything was compacted and even.

I was pretty proud of myself-exhausted-but proud. The bad news is that I didn’t use all the gravel, so I still had to dig to get to the sand layer. But the end was in sight… laying the gravel down made it easier to visualize the future patio. It was at this point that my Mom remarked it “looked better already.” Hmmm.