potty training progress and one question

Well i just wanted to thank everyone for their advice and support on the whole potty training thing. Maverick is not completely potty trained but things are going much better. We live on the 9th floor of an apt building (my sister picked this apt...) so making it all the way to ground floor to go potty i think was setting back maverick's progress and he never did get the hang of the bell. He looked at us like we were crazy whenever we would tap his paw on the bell. After a little over a month of the bell training with NO progress we gave up on the idea for the moment and decided to try something my mother suggested which was to teach him to use the patio. We dont really utilize the patio since it is cold a lot of the year or too hot. I created an area in the patio for Maverick to potty and kept putting him out there to go...now he has started to walk to the patio door and sit when he needs to go and we havent had an accident in a week. For a useless patio it has become quite useful just have to make sure to clean it after he uses it. Thanks for all the help guys. i love this place.

I do have one problem. he has begun to pee in his crate. ive read through all the crate training and questions on this topic and ive tried cleaning it with all the cleaners and changing all the bedding. there was even a topic recently which said dont clean it right away so they have to sit in it and dislike it. that hasnt work for us. He will just sometimes randomly pee in there..never poor except once when he was sick. I recently enlarged the crate with the divider because it was too small for him and while he seems more comfy in there now he will pee in it since ive done that...Any suggestions left? I dont wanna cramp the crate again!