Our newly revamped patio . . . circa 2004 . . . . . . . . Photo by Chris Duffy (no enhancement)

As promised, here's a picture of the patio after Mike and his two day laborers tore up the old flag stone, washed it all off, resanded the area, relaid the flagstone (not as close together as before), leveled them and finally grouted them.  I never criticized the other patio to Mike, but it was not very usable.  It was so unlevel that it was almost impossible to get a chair to sit squarely on it.  Then if you moved your chair the slightest bit one of the legs would sink down in between the flagstones.  Mike loves to eat outside and it soon became apparent to him that we wouldn't actually be USING the patio that much, because it was so uneven and unlevel. 

I'm really proud of the job they did on it.  It is so pretty and so much nicer to eat out there now.  We had company this week end and ate on the patio three times.  I can see us using it a lot now.  It's even fun to sit out there and watch the birds feeding. If you sit still they'll go ahead and ignore you and feed.  Today we saw two cardinals.

Our tiny little bird sanctuary in the corner of our back yard . . . . . . . . Photo by Chris Duffy

This is I'd guess about ten or twelve feet from our patio table and where we have several bird feeders.  Mike added a path from the patio to the bird feeders because he was always getting his shoes dirty when he'd go out to fill up the bird feeders.  I like it, even if he didn't actually use it.  Our favorite time to listen to the birds is early in the morning.  My goodness, they can sure start your day out on a pleasant note.