MUNGO EATS Latin America

For years and years, I have wanted to build a patio, flower beds and fountain in the back yard.    I sketched and re-sketched plans, changing what the patio was made of, what the the fountain looked like and the layout of the flower beds countless times.  Finally, I came up with a plan and this year, Kevin and I started construction.  We built the flower beds and the fountain earlier in the summer.  This weekend, we started with the patio. 

Even though it would have been fast and easy to get a large concrete patio poured by professionals, it was not exactly what I wanted.  I wanted it to look original, and I wanted to do it ourselves.  So I came up with the idea of making  a grid out of 4×4 pressure treated lumber.  Once we had the grid made, we used concrete and black flagstone to fill  in the squares. 

It takes a heck of a long time for this process, but it looks great and we can build it slowly, square by square.  This allows us to progress at our own speed.  Our own speed seems to be about 3-5 squares per day.  Here is what we managed to do in 2 days (although there were interruptions).

Eight down, 7 left to go before the snow flies.  The area we hope to finish before the end of the summer/fall is about 1/2 of the total patio space we will eventually have, but we didn’t think we had the time or the funds necessary to do the whole patio this year. 

Slowly, slowly, slowly.  One day, I will invite you all for coffee on the patio.  Just not yet.