Hallelujah—the patio is finished!

After catching my breath and letting sore muscles settle, I’m back to wrap up the story. We left off with me passed out on the mostly-laid pavers late Friday night. We took Saturday off for family time and an early Mother’s Day, then I planned to spend an hour or two finishing the edge cuts on Sunday. That “hour or two” stretched into seven or eight hours, which taught me a lot about patience and the effort required for curved edges.

Curves mean lots of cutting. To figure each cut, I placed a full stone against the border pavers—known as a soldier course—and penciled where the stone overlapped. For cutting I used a borrowed wet saw. It helped on earlier projects, but it wasn’t ideal for these thick 2.5-inch pavers. The blade didn’t fully penetrate, so most stones required two cuts (one from each side) and sometimes additional passes where the saw body limited the stone’s movement. In spots I still had to split the leftover center with a hammer and screwdriver to finish the job.

Multiply two to four cuts per piece across the 50-plus stones that needed shaping, and you can see why it took so long. By hour three, the expensive commercial saw started to look tempting, but I stuck with the free one and kept going.

When the cuts were accurate, I simply set the trimmed stone in place and tapped it down with a rubber mallet so it sat level and secure in the sand base. When things lined up, it looked great, and the joint sand I brushed in later helped hide some of the less-perfect cuts.

By the end of Sunday I had finished cutting and even re-attached a sagging gate that threatened to scrape the new pavers when closed. The edge pavers looked brighter at first because of wet-saw dust, which washed off later.

About the pattern: we used a repeating layout that people sometimes call an “I Pattern,” “K Pattern,” or even “H” because it reads as paired 6 x 9″ pavers with 6 x 6″ pavers forming H-like units. We chose it to match the driveway pavers left by the previous owners and because it offers a controlled, slightly random look—organized chaos, which we like. A stone-yard employee warned it was trickier than truly random patterns, but once we set a few H-shaped groups and built outward, it felt straightforward.

Monday was for the final steps. I broomed on top-layer paver sand to fill joints and keep the pavers from shifting. The process is simple but repetitive: spread sand, sweep it into the cracks, lightly mist with water, and repeat until joints are full and consistent. The sand looked a bit yellow-orange when wet, then dried to a complementary gray. For long-term joint stability you can use polymeric sand, which hardens and helps prevent weeds, but we saved about $100 by using standard paver sand and plan to upgrade later if needed.

Once sanded, I backfilled the patio edges with soil to hide the plastic edging. I didn’t get a border-after photo, but the finished patio looked clean and complete once the edges were filled and the excess dust was washed away.

We staged the patio with temporary furniture from around the house to get a sense of scale and function. It helped us picture how we’ll use the roughly 300 square feet of outdoor living space. Long-term, we imagine a daybed or loveseat with a coffee table to create a casual outdoor living room, plus a spot for a sandbox or baby pool for Clara. For now, temporary pieces let us enjoy the space and imagine future upgrades.

One permanent item is the grill, which finally has a home on the lower patio. The grill’s presence helps define an outdoor living area and encourages us to cook outside more often. Sherry’s favorite addition is a small ceramic bird feeder she bought—she calls it the patio’s crowning jewel—and it looks much better out there than it did sitting on the kitchen counter.

We hope this patio becomes a safe, enclosed space for Clara to play without worrying about the street. Chalk is easier on pavers than grass, and we already enjoy watching her explore the new area.

Overall, the project took us about 30 hours from planning to clean-up. We ran into curves and unexpected concrete in the demo phase, so your timeline may vary. Here’s a concise budget breakdown:

• 300 sq. ft. of Cottage Stone pavers (Southside Building Supply): $621
• Heavy-duty plastic patio edging and spikes: $69
• Paver sand (Southside Building Supply & Lowe’s): $107
• Gravel (Southside Building Supply): $240
• Delivery for pavers, sand, and gravel: $145
• Miscellaneous supplies (stakes, line levels, nylon string, hand tamper): $40
• Weed-blocking fabric & crampons: $30
• Grand total: $1,252*

*We actually paid $1,332 but received an $80 deposit back when we returned empty gravel and sand bags.

We blew past our original under-$1,000 plan, but doing the work ourselves saved nearly $4,000 versus pro estimates for a curved patio. It was a lot of sweat and a few sore muscles, but the finished space is worth it. If you want to follow the whole process from planning through the final sand, this series covers the key phases of the build.