The Rock Project

We have been busy this past month or so working on a big home-improvement project we've been wanting to get done since we moved in here almost 4 years ago.  It has been a big, time-consuming, back-breaking job and we now know why good masons command good pay!  Ryan has always been a gung-ho DIYer but when he was asked recently if he enjoyed masonry, he replied, "not particularly."  However, he would have enjoyed paying someone to do it even less, so there you have it.  We did it ourselves.

We started out trying to lay everything out in the first section.

 Eeny-meeny-miny-mo...

We discovered it was much easier (and faster!) to lay rock on the fly.  So I would try to stay a few rocks ahead of Ryan and he would come behind and mortar them in. 

One little helper was quite pleased to find a 'shu-vel' although his Daddy wasn't happy to see his trowel disappear.  I know I've mentioned it before, but toddlers add a whole new dimension to home improvement projects!

Lane liked the puzzle part of finding the right sized rock.  He had his own section laid out quite nicely on the table.

 Kicking empty boxes was entertaining as well.

Now for the tricky section.  Look closely and you'll notice I actually made it into a picture of the project - well my reflection did anyway.  There's no proof I actually helped, you'll just have to take my word for it...(:

A before picture - Fall 2008

At present.  There have been quite a few projects to bring it to this point.  It's fun to look back on the 'before' picture and see how far we've come. 

A little closer look at the rock work.

The next project is getting those railings (and the ones on the back deck) to code.  We had planned to work on that this summer too.  We shall see...