Mother's Day Wall

For Mother's Day this year, instead of just buying Mom flowers like the past few years, I decided to ask her if there was anything she needed done. She told me that she's wanted to get a nice paving stone wall put around the patio flower bed, and that for my gift I could help Dad put it in sometime. Well, Harvey's daycare was closed today, so I had planned on just taking the day off to watch him. Then I got the idea that I could come up and work on the wall while Mom watched him. So that's what I did. I only got one side of it done today, but it looks great. And now that it's started, it shouldn't take too much more work to get it done. Here are some pictures of the progress.


Bottom row of bricks laid, and dirt filled behind. This row took the longest because I had to make sure the bricks were lined up and leveled correctly.


Second row of bricks laid, with dirt filled behind. The bricks have a little lip that sticks down in the back to help position them correctly on the row below, and to keep them from falling forward. So this row was quicker, because I just had to place the brick where the lip made it set right.


Third row laid, not filled. The top row needs to be filled by hand to make sure the flowers don't just get buried, so Mom and Dad are going to do that. This row was the quickest because I was getting the hang of it, and I didn't have to put fill dirt in. You can see that the ground slopes a bit, because the brick near the house in the bottom row is completely under the grass line, while the brick farthest from the house is completely exposed.


View of all three rows from the other direction. The wall is going to look great when it's finished. Plus, most, if not all, of the big pile of dirt on the patio will be used to fill behind the brick, so Mom and Dad will have their patio back!


Lastly, here's a cute picture of Mom holding Harvey, watching me work.