#back stoop

I’d just fixed lunch when the mail carrier came with the vinca minor bare root plants that I ordered. Since I knew I wouldn’t want to work once I got home from work, I set my lunch aside and went out to plant. I’d already made a planter out of a tree stump, so all I had to do was stick the plants in the soil. It was easy enough to do. Now I just have to wait to see if the plants will take hold.…

We weren’t originally planning to take on any more larger scale projects this season given that we not only moved, but got our fence, installed five ceiling fans, changed out 3 kitchen/dining room lights and made the switch to a riding mower. But the cards aligned for us and here we are.

The timing and price were right, and we went for it. Our patio guy, Tony Farrell, came highly recommended to us by not one, not two but three unrelated sources, so we knew we had to look into him and entertain the idea of getting this big project done prior to the weather turning. Plus, with the addition we’ve moved our grill and smoker back here so we’ll definitely be using both of them well into the winter months. We’re the type to still grill in the chill 🙂

Picking the colors and design

We knew nothing about stamped concrete aside from the fact it’s concrete that is stamped to look more like pavers. Pavers allow in weeds between them (read: extra work) and are super expensive, and regular concrete slabs just don’t have the character we want.

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Thankfully, Tony brought us booklets with information on all our options. When he stopped by to drop these off we discussed overall sizing with him live. We decided on a 20 ft x 20 ft square design, offset to the right when you walk out the back door. After taking some us-time we knew pretty quickly we liked the Ashlar stamp for the pattern because of how big the patio would be and because we didn’t want anything circular – we’re geometric and modern all the way at our house. Tony recommended the Majestic Ashlar based on our large 20 ft x 20 ft size, versus the Ashlar Slate which was the same print but in smaller stamps.

The colors took us a little more time to finalize because you need to pick a conrete color and a release color, and we went back and forth quite a bit. The concrete color is the color of the mix and the release color is sprayed on top of the finished product to give the print an even more dimensional textured look. We always knew the final product would be gray-based, but there were a LOT of gray options in the pamphlets so it took a hot minute to settle. The winning combo turned out to be a softer Gull Gray concrete and a darker Storm Gray release color. The Storm Gray color complemented our siding color especially well so we knew it’d match nicely, and with a slab of concrete this big, a darker color would make a better statement. While I’m not even sure patios fade (do they??), if they do, I figured we were also better off going darker so it didn’t lighten too greatly over time.

Before

Pretty basic, yea?

My biggest before pet peeve was the stoop. Why is it so small and unbalanced? #woof

Construction

The crew came at 6:45am on Saturday morning… an hour I didn’t previously know existed on a Saturday. Thankfully, all our neighbors are up even earlier thanks to their tiny humans, because we felt bad waking anyone up that early on a long weekend.

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Early steps included surveying the perimeter and jackhammering out that unbalanced stoop. #YASS It was pretty loud so Bickell hid upstairs while Kev and I tried not to stare. The one guy used the hose to keep sparks from building… interesting stuff for home owners nerds like us!

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Scheduling Hiccup

Kevin’s aunt was coming in from Florida to go to Frankfort Fall Fest with my mother in law and myself the day the crew was able to come and do the job. While I really wanted to be there to check things out every step of the way, I also didn’t want to cancel long standing plans (for one of the most fun events all season, nonetheless).

The scheduling wasn’t the most opportune for us, but we also understand the crew can’t move their jobs on our accord, so we went ahead with the Saturday install and Kevin took several photos for me so I could be in the moment even at the fest, he’s such a gem!

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Change of Plans

We wanted the patio to start a few feet beyond the house to leave room for mulch, stones to place the grill and smoker, decor, etc. but that brought some questions about how we’re going to make a gorgeous focal stoop work. The patio is offest to the right when you walk out the backdoor also, so the step would not be your typical wrap-around-three-sides like I’ve seen in a lot of neighbor’s yards or in the pamphlets, so I was having serious trouble imaging what our end product would look like.

I described in [probably WAY too much] detail what I was concerned about to Tony and he didn’t even break a sweat. He said he knew exactly how to make a focal piece that worked with mulch on two sides, covers the full length of the sliding door, and has a patio on just one side. The only catch was, we’d want to either move the patio over so it didn’t quite reach the end of the house so it could go a foot or two beyond the stairs on the far side, or we’d want to extend the patio a little so it still reaches the end of the house and extends past the stairs for a solid look.

While no one loves spending more money on a project Tony said he’d only add the cost for the extra concrete it’d take because he really believed we’d want that look in the end, so how could we go any other way? I threw up my hands and let the professionals work their magic. It’s all you can do sometimes. But I’ll tell you what – it was the right call.

Spoiler alert: it turned out MAGNIFICANT.

After

The photos don’t even do it justice (probably because these were taken super quick after the finish so we hadn’t cleaned up at all)! The second photo above really shows you where the extra concrete past the stairs paid off. You wouldn’t want your patio just plain ending at the doorway and shoving the beautiful, focal point staircase into a corner, essentially.

Tony gave a solid recommendation and Kevin and I are thrilled we put in the relatively little bit extra to make it truly perfect. We’re very big on doing things right the first time to avoid regrets or going back and ultimately spending more to fix it.

We really mapped things out ahead so there wasn’t much that went array or much extra spending aside from the slight extension past the door. But as always, I recommend budgeting a little more than you expect as a just-in-case fund so you’re not left sweating relatively smaller decisions.

We also highly recommend Tony Farrell for your patio/paving needs if you’re in the Chicagoland area. Contact me for his info or shoot me a DM on Instagram. His web pressence isn’t big but he is very responsive via phone and text.

What’s next?

Since the install on August 31 we’ve purchased a few patio lounge chairs (on suuuper clearance), edged the entire perimeter of the patio with a mulch bed and lining for planting, and moved our outdoor furniture and equipment to it’s permanent backyard home. All on the DIY plan. I can hardly wait to show you the progress we made in just one quick week!

The landscaping and decor is it’s own story and will be coming Friday this week as part two of the patio saga. Talk soon!