The Patio

After researching patio construction and material type (several days of wandering around looking at rocks) we finally settled on a Pennsylvania Bluestone, cut (as opposed to natural)paver patio.
The first step was to excavate the area of the patio deep enough to hold the sand, crushed rock and pavers. After a couple of days of watching us dig, our neighbor, David, rescued us with his bulldozer. Thank you David! Jeff installed irrigation pipe and wiring under the proposed patio. We had to guess at location and quantity.
We had 3 1/2 pallets of pavers delivered by Morrison Gravel in Port Orchard. They were off the truck and in position within 10 minutes.
First we put down a layer of crushed rock, then sand and then the pavers. Jeff figured out how to cut the ones that needed cutting to size with his circular saw and a masonary bit. We used one inch pvc pipe to set up a scree system. We later used the pipe for irrigation. "This Old House Magazine" mentioned polymeric sand that Roger Cook used in a dry set patio like this. It was supposed to harden and make it less likely to wash out and less likely to be excavated out by ants. We finally located some, guess where, at Dowell Co. in Kent, 5 minutes from our old house. They assured us that the color was gray. It wasn't. So we mixed in some of the gray sand so it wasn't quite so reddish and installed it in the final inch of the seems between pavers. This seemed to work - hardened up nicely. Time has not proven its worth, however. The ants seem to have no trouble removing it and it has sprouted many weeds. Is this because we didn't use it "straight"? Should we have made it deeper than we did in the cracks? Jeff did a great job of estimating how many pavers we would need, but we were one paver short so I had to pick up one more paver. It was a good thing I didn't know how much they cost apiece when Jeff was figuring out how to cut them and breaking several in the process. Also note the "invisible edging" that holds the final paver layer in place. We saw this as an option in the how to books, but couldn't locate it at the store. We kept looking for it in the edging section and it turns out they stock it in the paver section. I suppose that makes sense and now we know.
Here is the finished product complete with our new, Ikea patio furniture. We fit all 5 boxed pieces and the four of us in our Honda Fit. That was a triumph in engineering.