A dry creek bed is easy to build as long as there is a place for the water to go. We routed the downspouts from our front gutters and the overflow from our water feature to drain here. This also catches all of the run off from our meadow. At the bottom of the slope in my garden above the dry creek, we have a rain garden of plants that like full sun and wet feet in winter, yet won't die in our summer. We already had a ditch, so there was very little digging. We used one pallet of river rock that was around $275 last fall. We used permeable landscape fabric underneath to control the weeds. We don't use fabric in flower beds, BTW! It took 3 of us half a day to do this, but that was with our archaeologist son looking through the stone for arrowheads (which he found). My husband and I didn't mind the slow pace! This was created in September 2006, so the plant material is new. Sidebar: The wire edging is a temporary detterent to deer to keep them from trampling the new plants. It's working so far since everything is deer resistant

Seeing your grill and firepit gives a better idea of what you're trying to accomplish. I think extending the patio with aggregate material will work out fine for you. Calling it "pebbles"... which sounds "clean" and of uniform size has me thinking you're envisioning the wrong kind of material to build it of. I'm including a link below that shows some samples of the types of material that would work well. Notice that each is made of little chips, smaller chips, angular sand and dust. It's the combination of sizes that allow it to pack down tightly, as each little particle settles (fits) in closely to the other particles. (This is not possible with "clean," uniform size material.) Even though an individual particle of aggregate is angular, the top surface of the whole compacted area, because of the way each particle fits together (and that none is particularly large) is flat and smooth. When "weed barrier" is placed above the compacted soil (or subgrade) before placing aggregate material, it's function is not as a weed barrier, but as a soil separator and stabilizer... which is the good way to use this material. ("Weed barrier" fabric that is made of rubber-like material or is stretchy will not work for this.) Imagine a stone on top a wet, saturated ground. It would be pretty easy to put some weight on that stone and push it down into the mud. But if there was a piece of tough, non-sretchy fabric between the ground and the stone... providing that the fabric didn't "give," it would be about impossible to push the stone into the soil. What "holds" the fabric and prevents it from "giving" is that you are putting down AN ENTIRE COMPACTED LAYER of heavy material on top of it. Then, pressure applied to one small spot of the aggregate "paved" area will be resistant to deforming. Given that the area you are constructing is quite small and the fact that it's for light duty, would incline me to think that stabilizer fabric is optional, not critical. (It would be pretty easy to top dress any depressions that formed over the life of area.) The most important considerations are the aggregate you choose and it's thickness (min. 3",) the edge restraint and compaction of the layers. Manual compaction would work OK for this small project. Crushed brick (as long as it contains "fines") is another material that would work for this project... Here is a link that might be useful: Path and trail aggregate materials

If your downspouting is riveted together it is most likely "Pop rivets" which are very commonly used by gutter installers. Before they are installed a Pop Rivet has a metal pin extending out through the head which looks like a finishing nail. To install the river they first drill the proper size hole in the metal to be joined, then insert the rivet. At this point the head of the rivet would be flush with the outside of the metal to be joined and the pin would be extending out approximately an inch. You then attach a Pop rivet expander tool which looks like a specialized pair of pliers. The pop rivet expander holds the head of the rivet flush with the exterior of the metal while pulling the pin outwards. As the pin is pulled outwards it expands the interior portion of the rivet until it is tight against the inside of the metal to be joined and when it reaches a preset stress the pip "Pop" or snaps loose and is then pulled out leaving only the rivet in place. If you look at the heads of the rivets closely you will see a small hole through the head where the pin came out. Removing pop rivets is very easy. Begin by selecting a HSS(high speed steel) drill bit with a diameter slightly larger than the hole in the rivet head. Us the hole in the rivet in the same manner as you would a centerpunch to guide the drill bit and drill the rivet out. The drill bit will cut the rivet head away from the rivet body in a few seconds and the rivet is free. In regard to trenching. The best method of trenching close to a structure is an ordinary shovel and a lot of elbow grease. The advantage of hand digging is that you are less likely to damage any pipes, conduits or buried cables that may be present. If you have a lot of trench to dig you may want to consider renting a trenching machine, but normally they are not practical unless you will be digging 50' or more. The law requires that before you begin digging any holes or trenches that will be 12" or more in depth you must first call "One Call" or "Dig Safe" 48 hours in advance to have them come and mark the location of any buried utility lines. If you can't find the phone number in your phone book call any Plumber, Electrician or Excavation contractor and they will be glad to give you the phone number. Do not take this step lightly, If you fail to call and you happen to damage a buried utility line you can and will be held both civil and criminally liable for any and all damage that results. When i worked in Florida we were required to carry our copy of the code book with us at all times and they required that we had a sticker on the cover of the code book with the dig safe phone number on it. Also keep in mind that they only keep records of the placement of the utility mains, they do not plot the actual service taps from the main to a structure. Before you begin check the location where your water lines, gas line or sewer line enters the structure to get a good estimate of where that line may be located. If you do not have overhead wires for electric, phone or cable you should then anticipate they are also underground service and you must make every effort to locate them before digging. Gas lines may be run with either metal or plastic pipe. When running plastic pipe we are required to run a copper wire parallel to the pipe which the gas company can use to inject a signal and use a tracing device to locate the line. It is now also a common practice and in some regions a code requirement to run a strip of plastic marker tape slightly above buried lines in a trench. When digging if you happen to find a red or yellow plastic tape check it out, it should be printed Gas line or Electric line. Also, if you happen to hit any buried concrete that is dyed red, do not disturb it. Red concrete indicates a buried electrical line.

@Stax, I tried that today with no real success :-( Tore my hands up doing it, too! It turns out that the majority of the clog is granules from the asphalt shingles. I had to reach in kind of backwards, but I scooped out handful after handful until I could reach in to my shoulder and couldn't get any more. I pulled out tons of roots, too! Not a huge surprise considering that I've seen trees take root IN my gutters! LOL These yellow pine trees would literally grow in anything :-/ There's one root in there that I can feel, but can't get it to pull out. But anyway. After I scooped out for as far as I could reach I tried the water hose (with and without a sprayer), but it just backed up and overflowed. It started out muddy so I let it go for awhile, then saw it was just washing out clear. Then I tried a wet/dry vac to suck out what I could. Not much came out with it, though. Then I tried forcing water in and sucking it out at the same time, with no real result. Next I tried using a 4' bamboo garden stake to poke holes in the silt, but that didn't really do anything. I tried my 230mph leaf blower to try to force things through, that didn't seem to do anything. Kinda running out of ideas. Maybe a sewer jetter? I'm guessing that this will connect to any pressure washer: https://www.amazon.com/Sewer-Jetter-Kit-200FT-Waterproof/dp/B0BKFXLRPP/