We are paved!

Yesterday was my day to stay home and monitor the job.  Even though I didn’t have to lay conduit, I still needed to make some decisions on the fly – the kind one makes and then has to live with.  Up to a certain point, adjustments could be made.  Pretty soon, though, things start happening very quickly and  it’s hard to reign the momentum back in.  Of course, changes can be made at any time, it just gets progressively more expensive to make them.

Paul couldn’t stand being away and came home in the early afternoon.  By then, everything was rapidly moving along and we both just stood back and admired their work. 

Although we don’t often contract jobs out (we are fairly handy and, um, cheap), when we do, it’s nice to watch experts at work. The good news: things got done quickly; they’ve done the job so many times before they didn’t spend time agonizing over minor nits.  The bad news: there was a lot of waste.  When just a small corner was needed from a brick, the rest of the brick was tossed (hopefully to be ground down and used again).  A lot of small corners equal a lot of waste.  If we had done the job ourselves, we would have used parts of one brick in several spots – much less waste.

Towards the end of the day, several cars of new workers began showing up.  We were told that these were all crew chiefs.  As their individual jobs finished, they’d send their crews home and gather at any remaining job sites that could benefit from extra help.  Watching these men work was truly amazing; each had a role and knew how to perform it.  In no time at all our job was complete (2 days!) and they were off to enjoy their weekend.  

Now that the pavers are in, we will begin to prepare the soil for planting.



This photo doesn't show the finished installation - we still have to clean and seal the bricks.