A spur of the moment idea

We have a number of DIY projects that we want to do around the house this summer, and others that we need to finish from last summer... and the summer before!  But instead of being practical and finishing off the old projects first, I had a spur of the moment idea late yesterday...which was that we should lift up all the old bricks on the pathway to our house, water blast them, level the earth, and then lay all the bricks back down again.

Hamish was all set to paint the garden shed today - a project that he started a few weeks ago, before the weather changed - but no, I had other ideas. Hmmmm, possibly not my best idea for our Christmas break.

After spending yesterday evening and many hours today using a crow bar to lift up some 260 bricks, move them to the driveway, water blast them, turn them over, water blast again, and then stack them, we are both knackered.

I think Hamish is wishing he had stuck to painting the shed, as it would have been an easier job, and much quicker than this brick path project, which I think will take about three times longer than I anticipated that it would, which always seems to be the way with our DIY projects.

Here are some pics of our huge efforts today.

Stage one of the path uplifted

Hamish water blasting the bricks



A work in progress



260 stacked and freshly water blasted bricks

Our temporary plank path to the house

We now have some 260 bricks water blasted and looking much better and cleaner. Each brick weighs 3.5kg - and needed to be handled three times each during the lifting, water blasting and stacking process - so between us we have moved around 2,730 kg.  And we also now have a very tired Hamish and very tired and very sore Kristine.  I wonder whether we will manage to see the New Year in...?!