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p. 7 III. PATIO REVISION Reasons for undertakinq this oroiect The current patio is in serious need of attention (see p. 8). Its surface is very uneven, broken up and buckled badly by tree roots, many stones loose or broken or submerged under the soil. This area takes up roughly half the yard, extending all the way from the house to the garage. The view from the house is of a seemingly endless expanse of ugly, disorganized fieldstone. Walking to the garage is potentially hazardous because the surface is uneven and unreliable. The unbroken line of the edge of the patio, consistent with the edge of the garage, is visually harsh because there is no relief from it, and it is echoed by the uninterrupted line of the brick -edged garden. (See plan, p. 9) Descriotion of oroiect Our plan (compare pp. 9 & 10) is to remove most of the fieldstone under the tree whose roots are making it buckle and return that area to grass or ground cover or garden. Low places could be filled with topsoil and the grade sloped up to the retainer around the trunk of the tree. This would cover many of the exposed roots, and plantings could hide the rest. A new patio of brick set in sand and edged with wood, twelve by sixteen feet, would exist in the area close to the house. This rectangle would be oriented perpendicular to the rectangle of the lot, and its SE edge would extend beyond the existing line, thereby softening it. Running from the patio to the garage would be a line of stepping stones, salvaged from among the largest and nicest of the current fieldstones. 'This walkway would have no hard -edged side boundaries. Fieldstone would be retained on the NW side of the patio, running to within about two feet of the neighbor's fence. Isolated patches of fieldstone paving that currently exist at each end of the brick -edged garden on the SE side of the lot would be retained, and two areas on the sides of the house which are currently unpaved would receive fieldstone removed from the original patio. Materials and Plans The new patio would be of reddish clay brick, similar to the color of the chimney (see verso of title page), preferably of used old street or sidewalk pavers, if we can find them. The edging would be pressure- treated wood. Everything else would be recycled from existing fieldstone.