Sand and Insanity

My husband is trying to kill me.  He is very, very clever because he just refuses to quit working when we should; thus, I continue to work also.  That is his fiendish plot... to work me to death and then have it look like natural causes.  See?  I told you he was brilliant!

Seriously, we both worked far longer than we should have today in an attempt to have our paver project complete by the end of this weekend.  (Note: since we have to concrete in all of the edges, having everything complete before the rains come on Sunday will not happen.)  However, we will try...  Is this insanity?

After a restless night, we were up early.  We talked yesterday about using the "left-over" pavers to build a paved approach to our new sheds, so that is where we started the day.  We framed and then dug out the area.  We used every bit of paver base we could lay our hands on.  Some was from behind the shed.  Some was in a five gallon bucket, and some was in bags of paver base that we had purchased when we put in our flower garden borders.  We probably could have used even more, but for now what we had, had to do.

The first layer of sand it loosely distributed
in front of the sheds.

We wanted to tamp the base down, so we had to pause at that point while we went to the paver supply warehouse to rent one of their tampers again.  They helped Rick load it into the truck.  When we got home, we still had enough of a hill of sand for Rick and me to just drop it from the truck into the sand pile.  That may not be the correct way to take it down, but there was no way I could lift it down.  We just let gravity give us a helping hand.

After Rick tamped down the paver base, we added lots of sand.  We certainly have an abundance of sand left over, so this was a good place to use some of it.  Rick made a jig to get the whole area level, and then we were back to laying pavers.

Last night, on graph paper, Rick laid out the pattern we needed to use to complete this small project.  To utilize all of the left-over pavers, we had to cut quite a few of them to complete the pattern.  Darn! I had worked really hard yesterday to clean up the saw, but out it had to come today.  Having to clean it again today was worth it, though.  We used every single small paver we had, and we ended up with only six of the larger pavers remaining.  That is what I call efficiently using our resources.

The sand awaits distribution to form a smooth place on which
to seat the pavers.  We finished this area and are delighted to have
a solid approach to the sheds.

We had the new pavers in place by 12:30, and we should have stopped then.  However, Rick was eager to keep going, so he started to haul sand onto the pavers.  With our new push broom, we spent the afternoon sanding, tamping, and brooming the sand into place between the pavers.  Wow!  I never knew that pushing a broom could be so much work.  We really have lots of paved area now, so working the sand in took time.  By 4:00 PM, I quit.  I could barely drag myself around to finish washing the saw and picking up the tools.  We worked way too long today, and we both are exhausted.

A walkway next to the concrete patio will help
keep dirt and mud from the patio.

More sand needs to be worked into the joints, but by this time,
we were both too tired to continue.

I am delighted that the former mud patch
on the north side of the house now is solid
pavers.

We still have a bit more sand work to complete tomorrow.  Then Rick wants to seal the pavers to lock in the sand.  His rush is because rain is predicted for late Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.

I am glad that we were able to use the remaining pavers in a way that will serve us well for many years to come.  I also am glad that this project is nearing completion.  Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, and I fully intent to make it so.