It was in 2002 I poured out the sidewalk to the workshop in the back. I first laid out the side forms and would mix and pour a section or two after work. This will all be coming up and replaced with these star bricks. This initial cement project was recorded in my early journal.
Journal entry from 9/11/2o11
Sunday I worked on tearing up the cement walkway and getting things ready for the Nelsonville Sidewalk pavers. This work is pretty fussy and can eat up lots of time. Normally I would have the radio playing my favourite NPR weekend programs. As a tribute to 9/11, memorial programming is all they aired for the entire morning and afternoon. I kept the radio off.
Getting ready to tear into the cement:
I’ve developed a new type of form for pouring the cement side of the new project. Since I’m reusing one of the old forms from the original walkway, this should keep the spacing pretty even and allow the side to stay pretty level. I was too beat up to set the thing up after putting it all together last evening.
The new improved cement form:
I stopped by Publix on the way to Homo-Depot to get the wood needed for the new forms. If there is a new addiction in my life it is the Raspberry Wheat, Shock Top beer I discovered. I got-me (That is Southern talk!) a six pack of that along with some heavy cream. I’m throwing caution to the winds and cooking up Alfredo tonight!
9/12/2012
I’ve reached the point where I want this latest project DONE!!! This has required so much preparation and set up work. It is frustrating in that you don’t see the immediate results and it feels like you are doing all that work with nothing to show.
I’m still pouring cement into the forms for the one side. However, now I can work in stages in that the earliest work can now be added to. Once the cement form dries, bricks are mortared and leveled out to the top edge. Once they set up, I can pound crushed limestone in and install the new sidewalk pavers. Being able to lay 15 pavers yesterday made all the difference in the world. Now, I can see light at the end of this project!
Here is a picture that shows all phases of this project at once: Digging up. Pouring the cement, and installing the bricks.
9/17/2011
The main focus in my life now has been to get my brick project finished up. This is incorporating many different styles of bricks. The “main sidewalk section” is composed of Nelsonville “Star” design sidewalk pavers. Where this joins to the main patio by my house I used “Hill Brick” salvaged from a reconstruction project done on Clinton Street Hill back in the late 1980’s. This brick had a bevel on one edge so when it was butted up to another bricks square side it would give traction as compared to a smooth surface. That bevel makes a nice transition for the drop from the patio to the sidewalk.
Where the star pavers end I have that demarcation point filled with heavier than normal paving blocks. The light coloured pavers are known as “Worlds Fair” bricks. These bricks were made in Malvern, Ohio by the Robinson Clay Products Co. This company was so proud of the awards they won at the Columbian Exposition they imprinted the winning medals into their bricks! It can be hard to make out the detail, but you can just make out Columbus stepping into the New World. This imprint was never meant to be seen. It is this type of pride and workmanship that is so lacking in the marketplace today.
The empty spot will be filled in today with an assortment of yellow bricks surrounded by Culver pavers. I enjoy making up designs using the different bricks in my collection. There has always been a soft spot in my heart for yellow pavers. I just wonder if that has to do with the “Yellow Brick Road” from the “Wizard of Oz”????
9/20/2011
A recap of how the backyard brick projects evolved.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same” is so true in my life. With my last brick project pretty well finished up, I was searching my picture files for some early shots I could use for comparison. I can spend hours just reliving the past viewing those pictures. I decided to be kind to myself and only go back to 2000!!!
The year 2000 was when I poured the cement pad to my driveway, built the wooden gate/fence and poured the sidewalk to the existing pad that was at my back study door. It was May 29th I poured out that cement according to the date scratched into the surface. The two bricks Judy got me from Niagara Falls Blvd are incorporated into the border of this pad!
I’ve have always envied those people who have a vision right from the “get-go” on how they want things to be. In my case things seem to evolve which can end up causing much more work and aggravation.
It was in 2001 I got the idea to install a walkway to my workshop from the driveway to make it easier to get my 1988 Lowrider out of the backyard. Oh my god: how many bags of cement did I mix that spring?
Here is a shot showing the many different levels of patios and walkways I had to contend with. This is a kitty who used to visit Stumpy!!
All those levels and odd angles made my “tits itch”. As Ron aptly coined me, “That Jimmy is like a squirrel in a cage; he just keeps going round and round and round.” In 2009 I got the bright idea to revamp that mess.
Overall shot showing the sidewalk.
Busting up those old pads:
Laying out and building the extension:
Showing the how the new patio meets with the existing sidewalk:
The finished extension:
This is a shot I tried to duplicate of the first in this series taken this morning:
I lived pretty happily with this configuration until the mess at the workshop end of the sidewalk started to bug me. I knew I would not rest until I ripped out that sidewalk I installed ten years previous.
Installation of the new bricks:
Because these bricks were a “hodge-podge” there was no uniformity in size. This makes laying these out an extremely labour intensive proposition. I tried to get a picture to show the assemblage of bricks in the mock up stage to show the differences in brick height:
The Nelsonville Star Pavers though were a dream to install as they were all the same size.
The new installation looking to the workshop:
Looking towards the house:
The street paver bricks are laid with a "sand topping mix". This is a mixture of sand and cement. It is swept between the cracks and then soaked with water. This makes a pretty permanent installation, and prevents weeds from growing through. It is a royal pain in the butt though as the residue also fills all the details of the bricks you want to expose. Using a shop vacuum you have to work fast as the bricks are kept wet to suck up the residue. The results are great, but it is so much work. Those gel knee pads I splurged on years ago have paid for themselves many times over! The Star Pavers I did not set with the sand/concrete mix. I just have sand between the joints. They are a valuable brick which may be salvaged and moved again when I’m long gone from here…. I’m worn out from this project. It is safe to say I will not be undertaking another task of this scale for a while!
Kitboga often interjects in his scambaiter YouTubes that he is such a fan of “foreshadowing.”
One of my favourite comedy pieces is Anna Russell performing her explanation of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle.” This set of four operas is considered the apex of musical achievement. Anna Russell teaches how utterly absurd the underlying plot of this masterpiece is.
When I reflect back on the brick projects I’ve done…where I’ve finished this entry up, I think how Russell bridges the last two “Ring Operas.”
Siegfried awakens Brunhilde from her “fire surrounded sleep upon a rock” and they instantly fall in love. Russell coins this as "Love on the rocks." The Opera “Siegfried" ends on a positive note… Here comes the foreshadowing from Anna Russel…“But nonetheless, they are in love and everything is very happy and you'd think that would be the end of it, wouldn’t you…Oh dear… “Götterdämmerung ””
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