 May 18, 2008. Our "before" picture. The back of the yard was always a mess and wasn't used for anything. It was a blank canvas waiting for a checkbook to open.
|  We're thinking a nice stone bar and patio area instead of the weeds and mud. It shouldn't be too much work - after all, the area is relatively level already...
|  The cleanup begins. I used a power saw and breaker bar to coerce some stumps out of the ground in prep for the patio excavation.
|  May 22, 2008. First sign of tangible progress - a dumpster for hauling out dirt. I would have never guessed so much dirt had to go.
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 May 22, 2008. Oh crap. The excavation uncovered a confusing maze of sprinkler system pipes that were too high (in fact now standing in mid-air).
|  The pipes are in the way of the patio and have to be moved.
|  |  I dug trenches for the new piping.
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 |  I then replumbed all the pipes that were up in the air - 135ft of new pipe was used. It doesn't look like much less of a mess, but it is low enough to go under the gravel and patio.
|  While the backyard was being worked on, the steps from the pool deck up to the front of the house were knocked out due to settling. These would be re-poured when the new patio concrete was poured.
|  While I had access under the steps, I installed a new drain that ties into the pool deck drains - when it rained hard in the past, the mulch used to wash down and clog the deck drains, causing flooding in the basement. Our solution was to install a drain basin and re-landscape with river rocks instead of mulch on this side.
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 Hopefully, this means no more sprinting to the basement to see if we're flooding during monsoon season.
|  May 27, 2008. Excavation is done, gravel is down, and the bar wall footer has been poured.
|  |  You can see the deep footers for the patio - lots of dirt had to go and lots of concrete would have to go in. Did I say earlier that this should be an easy job?
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 Liberto is the stone-mason who built the bar and retaining walls.
|  May 28th, 2008. Finally, the concrete truck is here.
|  Footers around the patio, plus the patio and the stairs required a full truck. Lots of wheelbarrow trips to bring it all to the back yard.
|  The pour is underway.
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 August 4, 2008. Liberto is back to install the 2" bluestone bar top and build another small retaining wall.
|  The semi-finished product. The wall is finished and the cap stone has been installed. It blends in well with the existing bluestone and light post.
|  The almost-complete bar. Scaffolding is still attached to hold up the heavy bluestone top while the mortar dries.
|  View from behind the bar towards the pool and house.
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 August 6, 2008. Liberto and his helper are preparing to put down flagstone on the concrete patio.
|  |  A bit more than 300sf of flagstone was used to cover the new bar-area patio.
|  View from the deck down to the new bar area. I'll try to get a better shot when everything is finally done.
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 |  |  Some color really brings out the tropical feel.
|  We tried to use materials that tied the new patio in with our other patio area, just off the walkout basement and and under a covered deck.
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