The ol' Scot poet Robbie Burns could not have been more right. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. In DIY, how true, how true. My "little" paver project has turned into a never ending consumption of exhausting weekends. I exaggerate of course. The end is in sight after 5 weekends. I think 6 should do it. But you know, I would do well to remember Mr. Burns' wise counsel.
Sounds simple enough...a 9x18 paver patio with a 2' retaining wall on 2 sides. Two weekends, maybe? How hard could laying pavers and block be? Not hard, until you start digging into hard-as-a-rock, dry as a bone, red clay soil. A good soaking rain made it a little easier, until I dug into my ground line (yep, I failed to call before I dug.). Turns out that was a plus, because I discovered the connector had corroded and the ground line wasn't even attached! Fixable though, with dear old DIY master, Daddy, imparting electrical wisdom. Wait, another problem....the ground rod sticks up too high for my pavers to be level. Oh well, pound it down further...until I hit rock and it won't go anymore. How bout we cut it off? That works.
Now, the materials and another whole round of problems. Good news, Lowe's delivers. Bad news, they don't come at the scheduled time, and drop two pallets of pavers & block in my front yard. A call to mgmt fixes that, and they come back with the forklift and put it where it should have been in the first place. Lucky me, I get three extra free black widow spiders in one pallet! They're in black widow heaven now, along with about 100 fish bait I accidentally chopped in two during the excavation. More deliverable materials of crush n run and granite sand arrive. But wait, I must've gotten a skimpy scoop, so not enough sand to cover, and they're closed on Saturday afternoons. Good thing Lowe's is only 10 mins away. Let's make a run for sand - 4 bags ought to do. Nope, the sand was wet and compacts more, so 4 bags was not enough. All the while, my dogs have no concept of the new command - "Get off my sand, I just leveled that!!!" Another run to the store for sand and finally, I'm covered.
Laying the pavers and block went pretty fast, but cutting them was another story. The wall block cut pretty well with a hammer and chisel, but the pavers...I busted 3 and decided the hammer and chisel method was not going to work. I have plans to try a diamond blade circular saw. Oh, wait. Here I go again with those plans.
