Layin' Bricks like a Pro

Do you remember in this post, when I asked you not to get your panties in a twist because I would eventually write about our patio fiasco last summer? Well un-twist your panties folks because a "patio post" is comin atcha!

We spent a portion of last summer working on a patio on the side and back of our house. Prior to patio-prep, we actually spent the summer prior to that one pulling three-foot-deep ivy from all around the house. It was brutal.

But after the ivy was gone, the back of house looked something like this...



It looked bad and we were in need of a chill-out place to eat and relax in the spring, summer and fall months. We decided on E.P Henry charcoal brickstone from a local retailer called Gallentino's. So once the permit was posted...
...and the pavers were delivered...
...we were ready to get started with our pink string, tape measures and digging supplies.

After measuring and placing string for our guidelines, we were ready to get to digging. Okay. For some reason I thought digging would be easy and wouldn't take too long.. maybe an hour or so. OMG. That was so naive. Turns out most of our yard is CLAY! It was crazy-difficult to dig. Exhibit A:
But not only did we have to dig, we had to rake. And then dig again. And then rake again. bleh. It sucked.


But after we got the dirt pretty even with the rake and shovel, we started pitching the ground/ dirt by 1/4 inch for every foot. It actually wasn't so bad and I got a good bicep workout.


Commence tampering!


So after the entire area was looking flat, level and pitched like this:


... we were ready for sand!

(Hottie!)

(Sunburn!)

Once we were fully sunburned, we were finally ready to lay the first brick. Yay!

And after a little while we were making good progress.


We worked into the wee hours of the night to get all of the brick laid out.



Bright and early the next morning, Tiago was up finish with the polymeric sand. That part was actually fun.

So after a long weekend and a lot of hard work, our back yard was finally looking something like this:


We were grilling in no time!