Patio question: Updated at end of post

[dr.girlfriend]

We had this slate patio at our house before we built our addition (photo from seller's listing).  It was off the garage with no real access from the main house, and we're not outdoorsy people anyway, we don't grill or anything, so we never really did much with it:


When we built our addition, we had to be very careful about what percentage of nonpermeable surface we were covering in our lot.  We basically knocked down that peaked garage and built a master bedroom/bathroom/laundry addition that extended the whole length of where the garage used to be and a few feet out from where the patio used to be...I think it went about 16 feet further out.

We did a patio that was about the maximum we thought we were allowed outside the french doors to our bedroom, which was 8' x 10' but in a relatively irregular shape where we relaid the slate pavers that were there previously.  The remaining pavers are just scattered around our yard, most of them laid out as stepping stones.  This is what it looked like being built:



And this is what it looks like now (sorry, it's very sad I know):



Here's a sense of the remaining pavers:



Now we're realizing that we'll be outdoor entertaining for the immediate future, even just having outdoor distanced drinks with one or two friends.  I bought this little firepit table set that I'm hoping I can cram into the existing space:


But I'm wondering how hard it might be to relocate some of the existing pavers to extend the little patio a bit, maybe making it closer to 10 x 10, or having some pavers off to the side under under where we will be putting a deck box for cushions.  Is this something we could DIY?  Is it as simple as putting sand down as a base and setting the pavers in?  It looks like the contractors mortared between pavers but since grass is growing there I don't know that it really mattered much.  

Update:  Well, I can't say I did a perfect job or anything, but this weekend I managed to get another row of pavers at the end (sorry the angles are very different but if you look you can see the relatively straight line where the original set of pavers ended), and also used leveling sand and some 12" square pavers to make a little pad for the deck box to sit on.  I also got some shepherd's hooks to string lights on, and some outdoor edison globe lights are on their way.  I'll post a final update when it's all set up!

[aprilsails]

If you just think you will use it for a year or two and want it to be impermanent then putting down sand is fine. They may shift around a bit, although I don’t think you get a heavy freeze thaw cycle where you live.

If you want it to last and stay put, you dig down 18”, fill with gravel to 6”, add crushed stone, compact it and then put on a top layer of sand about 3” deep. You put down the stones and then use polymeric sand between the pavers, which you can soak and it create a kind of mortar that is removable.

[InBetweenDays]

As aprilsails notes I think part of it will depend on where you live and what the freeze/thaw cycle is like. I would just give a shot with DIY and sand. It's not going to be a heavily trafficked area so I would think it would do just fine given how you plan to use it.

FWIW we have a beach cottage that has a stone patio like that. The people who put it in most definitely didn't do the full dig down, fill with gravel, crushed rock, etc. It's just the stones on sand/dirt. It's been 19 years and has held up and stayed in place just fine (in the PNW so mildish climate).

[simpsongal]

Yup, if you really want to keep it simple, you can lay them next to your patio and eventually they'll settle. It might be worth doing a layer of stone dust.

FWIW, we laid a patio ourselves. It was a TON of work, and we did the polymeric sand and that never really sealed the joints - grass and weeds grew anyway