Like a Ton of Bricks

When the pool was built we had to remove some of our brick paver patio to make room. Knowing we were going to have it fixed after the pool was done we had the demo guy save the bricks. He dumped them in a pile in the back lot. Back in January, the kids (including Roz - she was here visiting) and I spent a warm, sunny winter morning stacking them neatly on a pallet.

We knew we wanted the patio fixed before swimming season really got rolling so we made a few calls to get some estimates. It wasn't a big job. Just fixing a few bricks, straightening the brick line by the pool, and then adding a little bit to one corner to even things out. We didn't think it would cost too much since we had the bricks. We just needed the labor.

The first guy came. Jerry didn't like him. I didn't like him either when I saw his estimate! It was almost $2000! No thanks, we'll pass. The next guy was better. Jerry liked him. I liked his estimate. It was almost a quarter of the first guy's, but he said he was busy and wouldn't be able to get here for about 3 weeks. We said that was fine.

When it had been three weeks and we hadn't heard from him, Jerry called. "Thursday or Friday" is what we were told. No one came. Another call. Another answer. Another no show. Ugh. Then it was Spring Break and he went on vacation. Then another week passed. I was seriously ready to start calling around for more estimates when we were told "someone would be out today". Let's just say I wasn't too optimistic. But, I was also pleasantly surprised, because they came! Finally!

Unfortunately, the three man crew came without instructions. I told them what we wanted and they got to work. They had gotten here late in the day Thursday and didn't work long. I was a little concerned when they left that they didn't understand what I had said. (We had a slight language issue.) When they showed up on Friday morning, I asked them if they understood and they said they did. At that point there was really nothing to do but wait and hope they truly did.

They were done by lunch. And they did just what I said.

So here are a few "before and after" photos.

This first one is on the way to the guest house. We called it the "fiscal cliff" because Annabeth would stop and request assistance to cross it. The pool guys had to dig the bricks up here to run the electrical. Last summer I just laid a few bricks in the gap to make do until we got it fixed.

You can see the line along the pool fence needed to be straightened. Then we wanted to add a few bricks in the far corner to even things out.

Here are the after photos! No more "fiscal cliff"! But I still step funny when I walk here. It will take me awhile to stop that.

We now have a nice straight edge along the pool fence. This line actual runs at a funny angle so each of those bricks had to be cut to fit inside the brick "frame".

 

The corner was filled in as well. It is a little bit lower than the rest of the patio but it looks like it was always that way.

They had to cut a lot of bricks around the little piece of pool decking here as well. Jerry and I might have been able to lay the bricks but we would never have been able to cut them like this! Which is why this was not a DIY project we wanted to take on.

Here is the view from the back patio now. You'd never know it wasn't always like this!

One more thing of our checklist!