Fire Pit Folly - Part 2

Want to know how to kill a 3 day weekend? Just ask me, I'll give you a project! :)

This was Fire Pit Weekend. Matt had his schedule mostly cleared from Friday afternoon through Monday, with the exception of soccer practice Friday evening and the games Saturday morning. We had no plans other than sewing for me (Halloween costumes!) and fire pit for Matt. He was still doing site work & there really wasn't any way for me to really help, so I spent the weekend doing other things and taking care of little people while he did this...

Laying out the first course of the retaining wall

Setting PVC for leveling the sand layer

Getting ready to do the LIMBO :)

William was given a sharp knife and the job of opening all the bags of sand

He did a terrific job. William is certainly a trooper who will stick with you to the end.

Where we began Monday morning, October 11

Now, while I showed you what he spent all weekend doing in 6 pictures, what you didn't see is the constant measuring, string-setting, and checking for level and slope that he did. All with a twisted up knee that decided to go out at soccer practice Friday evening. There's a reason they call this back-breaking work, under the 1500 lbs of sand is 7500 lbs of gravel - not to mention all the block that needs to be moved. Anywho - by Sunday evening he had the sand leveled and the retaining wall and fire pit laid out. We had high hopes for Monday!

I took the kids to a local farm and pumpkin patch Monday morning, leaving Matt to work on the fire pit. When we got home around 2pm, he was out returning the block saw & tamper we'd rented, as they were due back. He'd spent most of the morning cutting the blocks for the angles on the wall, and I think when he returned he was a bit overwhelmed by what was left & where things stood at that point. Matt and I spent a little bit of time talking and figuring out what to do next, and then I started laying brick down while he worked on the flagstones. We'd made this a bit more complex due to the fact that I wanted to mix in flagstone with the brick- while the flagstones are a lot bigger & cover more area, they aren't the same thickness as the brick & are also uneven, so each piece needs to be leveled individually.

Hey! It's Harried Mom in a picture! And she's helping!

Me and my Handy Helpers

Jason getting in on the brick toting action

Jason was so happy to be carrying bricks back and forth

The duck William made with the cut pieces of block

It was getting dark by 6:45 & we needed to feed the kids and get them to bed for school, so at that point we called it a day. I think we have about 80% of the patio laid, but the remaining 20% includes all the bricks that need to be cut for the edges and to fit in around the flagstone. We would dearly love to have that part finished before the weekend, but time will tell - the days are long and busy, WITHOUT giant projects like this :) All I know is, I will be very very glad to leave everything behind for a week as we leave on Sunday for a cruise to the Bahamas. Well - not everything, the kids are coming with us :) All the same, I'm looking forward to not having to cook, clean, wash a dish or make a bed for an ENTIRE WEEK. Wahoo! I just have to make it to Sunday with my sanity intact. Wish me luck.