Hi all,

We are in the final stretch of our patio! We love how it has turned out. Tomorrow they will be finishing it up but we need to decide how to orient the bricks on the attached pathway. The patio is a running bond pattern with a soldier course. The pavers run parallel to the house. The pathway goes to a gate that has a staircase to the garage, which we don't use very much. The pathway will have the BBQ on it. On Friday I wasn't home when they were finishing for the day so they laid part of the pathway as an example of how it could look, but they are leaving the final decision to us as to how we want it. But we have to decide by tonight so they can finish tomorrow. Here are pics as to how it looks now:

Looking out from the back door. The dirt area will have some plantings and possibly a console table for serving.

Full view of the main portion of the patio. You can see a bit of the pathway in the lower left of picture.

The pathway as they laid it for now, to show me what it could look like. It will go all the way to the house.

So here is my question/concern. You see how they did the soldier course around the whole of the square patio. If the pathway is going to run in the same direction as the patio, shouldn't it just be continuous from the patio and there be no soldier course dividing the patio from the pathway? It seems like the pathway bricks should just be a part of the patio, if that makes sense. Alternatively, if the pathway is going to be differentiated, should we run the pavers perpendicular to the house for the pathway?

Thank you for any and all advice!