The patio

In the front yard of the house we have the covered cochera where the truck is parked and we have another area that is meant to be a garden or patio or something, but was just dirt. It created a lot of dust with every little breeze and we were concerned about it being a giant mud pit come the rains. We’d have to walk through there to get to the house…not a pretty thought. But our landlady had told us they had plans to fix it before the rainy season and true to her word they did! But what a process. A day and a half and a whole lot of work for three men!!!

First, two guys spent half a day digging out the extra dirt and hauling it off, then leveling the remaining dirt and placing bricks here and there to act as leveling devices. They used a clear piece of tubing and siphoned water into it as their level.

Day two dawned with the early morning delivery of six bags of concrete and a pile of gravel and another of sand…then the workers arrived. They began by shoveling the rocks and sand into a little circle in the street and then covering it with two bags of the concrete and slowly mixed in water, using their shovels to mix the concoction.

Then they dumped the mixed concrete into the wheelbarrow and dumped it into the patio area, first in three strips about a foot wide each, and then continuing with the wheelbarrow filling in between the strips.

All of the leveling and smoothing was done by board and trowel. And all the finish work was done with my broom. Voila!! Patio!!!

The next day we just had to water it down and that was that. It has really knocked down the amount of dust in the house and an added benefit is the radiant heat from the concrete helps dry my laundry MUCH quicker!! Bonus! All this and no mud pies during the rainy season. God is good!