installing a brick step landing [weekend project]

Last year I demolished our fireplace hearth, something I had dreamed of doing for years.  One Sunday morning, I removed the hearth and with the help of our teenage son, we toted the bricks, one by one, out into the back yard, cleaned up the mess and waited for my sweet husband to get home.  I kind of remember thinking he might react one of three ways; shocked, angry or indifferent.  He was indifferent…I mean he was aware that I never liked the hearth and he knew I had played it over and over in my head, how I would remove the hearth from our home.  The question was; “what laid beneath the bricks?”  was is hollow? was it cement?  It turned out to be neither…it was just more bricks, some like new, some broken and then there were the bricks with mortar on them.

If you really want to see what I do when left unsupervised for a few hours you can read about it here.  You never know, there are some people who dream of demolishing an eyesore in their home and they just need that little push.

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Also last year we completely removed the french doors that lead out to our deck and pool, replaced the frame, repaired and hung the doors,  trimmed out the frame, then painted all of it in a rich dark brown.

I’m still in love with the color and believe it or not, that cute little black and white fur ball you see in the window, has not destroyed the doors.  I will be doing some minor touch ups this season, but nothing like the overhaul we had to do last year.  That little weekend project you can read about here.

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So why am I rehashing projects I did 12 months ago?

Because it took me that long to figure out what I wanted to do with all of those bricks.

First they were going to be used as a landing for the grill, we did lay a nice big square of bricks to see if that would work…

but then we thought about using them for a pathway,

and then we forgot about them…

until this past weekend.

I had this BRILLIANT idea!

why not use them as a landing outside of the patio doors?

So we did!

but only after we dismantled the square landing that had been under the oak tree, sitting in dirt, now under a season worth of dead leaves, snakes, spiders and several other creatures that would later crawl up my arms as we “again” moved those bricks, one by one, over to the hosing area.  And with a scrub brush we cleaned about 40 + bricks.  I lost count of all the spider homes I destroyed. Brown Recluse spiders at that.

but we now have an awesome step landing just out side our back patio doors.

nice!

I’ve only tripped over it a few times.  I think I’ve got the hang of it now.

I keep telling Mr Rust that he’s a lucky man.  Sometimes he needs to be reminded, especially on those days when it’s over 90 degrees and he’s ankle deep in dirt trying to complete the other backyard weekend project we were in the middle of.

I must say, my legs got a great work out from squatting down and scrubbing bricks, then standing, walking over to place the bricks and then go back and scrub some more… for three hours.

It was worth it.  And now the fireplace hearth/back patio door projects have come full circle one year later and should now be complete.

That is until…I have another great idea!