brickin' it up

today, out of no where i embarked on some yard work. i was chilling on the couch and thought i'd go out in the yard and do a little something. i started by pulling some giant weeds out of our planter box. that got me onto digging on this bush that neither heather or i like and i've just trimmed it back the last two years. this year, i'm taking it out.

recently, we came up on a load of bricks for free (thanks, adam). i sorta knew where i wanted them, but wasn't exactly sure how much i had, along with some pavers and other bricks that were already at the house when we moved in. once i had an idea about how many bricks i had in square footage, i started plotting. i also consulted heather about the plans, and we came up with a basic idea.

planned area one:



planned area two:



the bricks in one possible formation:



the bricks for area two:



and then i began digging. and sorta leveling. here's area two readied:



area one all sorta readied:



the bush that's coming out:



so, tomorrow i'll be picking up some sand for the base under the bricks, as well as some brush in grout stuff. and hopefully i'll have at least the brick project done. maybe i'll get crazy and pull out the bush as well. of course, this will all happen after i watch arsenal vs liverpool.

UPDATE:
the finished project:



many thanks to mike and adam for their time, truck, tools and knowledge. we figured out that it would take 25 bags of sand for the base, and we used 24. pretty good estimating. the weather cooperated and it wasn't too hot, we turned on the giants game and did work. a nice afternoon.