What were we thinking?

The opportunity arose for us to get a large pile of pavers for free.   Ding ding ding.....FREE.  Sure, no problem.

Problem......those puppies are heavy.  I forgot to take a photo because it was also raining and the wind was blowing AND it was cold.  These are the octagon shaped pavers with the attached little square. I am going to estimate that weigh 6 pound each but they have sharp edges and are awkward to pick up with one hand BUT they are free so I shouldn't complain.  What's that about looking a gift horse in the mouth?

So anyways, even though we have a full size truck we still needed to make a lot of trips.  So far 5 trips and we estimate another 3 before we have them all. So what will we do with them?  I'm thinking a small round patio with a low retaining wall around the edge and locate it in front of the house where currently our old flagpole is located.

The flagpole will be relocated soon.  Heavens knows we have enough vintage wrought iron furniture stored in the basement but the real plus for me is that I want to connect the patio to my front door with a new walkway that crosses the driveway.  This will allow us to widen the walk to the porch so we can add a iron railing.  I found someone who hand crafts them so it would blend with the iron decoration on our front door.

A railing is really a must here in the north where it is not uncommon for porches to get iced over especially after a sunny day in January.  My mother is in her 80's and she needs a little help with the one step even in the summer.  I think for safety purposes it just makes good sense to add a railing.

These pavers are multi colored earth tones but I think I want grey for the retaining wall.  Maybe even add some red pavers in the center to match the red brick in the chimneys and pillars out by the road. It's early on in the design process but that may change.

But first we need to get them all home, counted, and cleaned.

Here is a link to this style of paver.

BTW don't even ask me about my fingernails.