Sunday, January 24th, 2010
Bricks Erica and I have been wanting to lay brick between our garage and deck. However, bricks are very expensive, even on craigslist.com. This past weekend we went to an estate sale next to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum, a well to do neighborhood.

The home belonged to a man who was a lawyer and very well off. He died last year at the age of 67. This man wasn't so organized. The people who put together the estate sale said it took 2 months to get everything organized.

We get to the basement and there are 1000s (not too many zeros) of bricks there. There was also TONS of cobblestone. The bricks were 20 cents each, so we bought 600 bricks for $120. This was an amazing deal.

There were too many people in the house and driveway to collect our bricks on Saturday, so we used the cellar access point in the back of the house. Erica and Alex picked the bricks out and I carried them to Micah who was stacking them outside behind the house. I was able to carry 7-9 bricks out at a time, so you do the math on how many trips I made. My biceps and forearms are a little sore today.

So here's the reason why the bricks were in the basement as I'm sure that's what you were wondering. Many years ago the man had all these bricks in his driveway to be used for something, maybe to make a driveway as it was nothing but mud. The home association didn't like all these bricks lying out as many different creatures started making homes there, i.e. rats. They asked him to get rid of the bricks or put them to use. About this time the man's 16 year old son was issued a DUI. So, instead of using the bricks for whatever he was going to do, he had his son transport every brick to the basement as part of his punishment. DAMN!

So, along with almost every piece of furniture, painting or knick knack in our house, we will now have a pretty cool story when we finish this pathway. We'll be attacking this project when it gets a little warmer and when the ground dries a little bit. Here's some pictures of the bricks.

The first stack after moving the bricks out of the basement:

4 truckloads of about 150 bricks:

75% complete:

My future pathway: