Floating Patio

Right so... we finished the sandbox JUST IN TIME for our kiddos birthday shindig and we got the truckload of sand... and we had QUITE A BIT left over.  We tossed around SEVERAL ideas... putting sand under the big toys we have in the yard, just filling in the gap underneath our back porch, I suggested using it in some of the beds in the front yard... and then Handy hubby came up with a GRRRREAT idea!  We can lay pavers and make a floating patio extending off of the one we have already. 

With that said, we marked off some space and laid out some landscape cloth, and started spreading the masonry sand that we had left over.  Spread it about 1" thick and tried to level the ground (not really the focus until we were laying the pavers).

Then we headed to the hardware store and started looking for pavers (remember... this was a LAST MINUTE idea... we were kind of winging it).  We found some 16x16" grey pavers that were simple and we liked them for $3.48 a piece (TOTAL $170 something... + military disc... YEAH BUDDY).  We needed to cover a 12'x12' space so we figured in about an inch for grout and did a 7x7 square with the pavers.

Now, as we were laying the pavers, we would level the sand and then make sure that the paver was leveled as well.  **Keeping in mind that the pavers needed to be completely covered underneath or the chance of them cracking is MUCH greater.**

Once we were finished (sorry... forgot to take a picture), we spread more of the masonry sand in the grout joints (a push broom would be BEST, but we didn't have that... we used an old kitchen broom, worked fine).

After that, we hosed (gently) the grout and then put more sand, wet, more sand, wet... you get the picture, until the grout joints were pretty solid.

That's really it!  Looks GREAT!  Was fun/easy to make (seriously with the 2 of us doing it... including loading/unloading the 49 HEAVY pavers... it took us like 4 hours to do)... and now we have MORE patio space!  YAY US!!