RATHER THAN BLOG about my exciting day at the shopping mall (I went to the K-Mart in Bridgehampton for such essentials as a new toilet seat and a corkscrew), have a look at my friend Nancy’s new bluestone patio in Boerum Hill.
AFTER (well, during - it's not quite finished)
In my two-and-a-half weeks at her house, I managed to screw up her cappuccino maker and leave a couple of eggs on the stove so long they exploded, but on the plus side, I encouraged her to call Carlos Serna of Stones R Us, an Italian stonemason who re-built a collapsing retaining wall at my Boerum Hill house, and get going on the patio she’d been postponing for ages.
BEFORE
About 8’x10′ (the rest of our design concept calls for a slightly raised wood deck, to be built later this summer), the patio cost $3,800 and took 3 or so days for two men to accomplish, what with breaking up the existing concrete and carting it out, excavating several inches, laying a bed of gravel, setting the 2-foot-square bluestone slabs in a bed of sand, and trimming it with cobblestones.
The bluestone will darken and mellow with time, and the sand between the stones, rather than concrete, allows for the possibility of growing thyme or other greenery in between.
casaCARA 
I can’t thank Cara enough fro getting me into action on this project! I love the new patio and am eagerly awaiting the other side to de done with cedar decking.
When you click on the pix it’s a hell of a lot better and sharper … you can really see the workmanship and the cracks…
did the price include the stone?
Yes, the $3800 included the stone.
Would you be willing to list the phone number for Carlos Serna? I cannot find it on the web. Thank you.
Sure! it’s 917 834 6170.
Not that it matters but Carlos is Columbian not Italian.
Thanks for the correction – glad you’re still reading my blog!;-)