And in one, final burst of usefulness...

we did a Home Improvement Project (we're really not this productive, usually, but Mr. Abby checks in at the New Duty Station tomorrow, so we thought we should knock this one out).

There was a path from the back patio to the pool, but it consisted of those 12-by-8 thin concrete rectangles. And it was apparently laid out by Big People, so everyone in our household had to leap from rectangle to rectangle. Funny, perhaps. Convenient, not so much.

So we wandered down to Home Despot and had a pallet of things loaded in the truck (props to the Despot - like the one in Tampa, the one here provided a 10% military discount). Then the fun began.

We removed the stupid rectangles, laid out the pavers, wetted the ground, picked a trench along each side, removed the pavers (setting one of them in a steaming pile of dog poo, which made for much fun when we picked it up again), picked the entire area, removed the dirt and grass, leveled the dirt, scraped the dirt, tamped the dirt, added sand, leveled the sand, scraped the sand, tamped the sand, laid in the pavers, leveled the pavers, added more sand, spread out the sand, and then went out for tacos.

That last part is vital.

And now we have...a path. We'll give it a few days and see how the sand settles. Ideally, the pavers will stick up maybe half an inch. It's flush now.



The pavers are heavy little suckers, too. Not so bad to carry, but scooting them around on the base layer of sand was tiresome.

The kids were even forced into productivity, carting the unwanted dirt away in the Rubbermaid containers you see in the background. Somewhere in the last five years, we lost track of our wheelbarrow. Which is a pity, because although other things can be made to work, there's really no substitute for a wheelbarrow.

So, as part of my ongoing effort to tell you which home improvement project you might want to undertake yourself, I give pavers a "lots of work, but very do-able." As opposed to tiling large rooms, which is rated, "highly hazardous to a happy marriage." Or cutting and installing baseboards, rated, "super easy if you have the right saw. Goddam impossible if you don't."

We're here to help, really.