For the last 2 Sundays, I've worked on the patio at my new place.  Before, it was a dangerous sort of walk from the back door because you had to be careful where you stepped.  One could have easily twisted their ankle and since I get hurt enough without help, I couldn't afford for that to happen.

 So I undertook what I now dub, "The Patio Project."

 What follows is a pictorial essay (with comments) on my latest building project.

 This is what the place looked like before I started.  I got too eager and actually started before I took the first "before" picture.

And here's the "almost beginning."  Those concrete blocks stacked up against the wall were all through that area where the shovel and the new patio pavers are.

Here you can see where I began with the patio pavers.  You're supposed to use sand on the bottom to get a completely level surface but lacking that, I had to get down there to scrape and level off the ground with that little gardening shovel.  Yes, it was tedious work.

And now you can see the patio taking shape.

There was an area on the other side of the house that had all these patio bricks from where the owners a while back had a whirlpool hot tub set up outside.  The tub was gone but the pavers were still there.  As you can see, I carried all of them over 4 at a time and stacked them up, before getting on my hands and knees to level the ground and put them in place.

This picture was to prove I was actually doing the work.  Hadn't shaved in a few days.  Don't know why my mouth is open.  No comment.

Getting there slowly.  It's starting to get dark now.

And now, the sun has gone down.  You can tell because the flash on my camera is lighting the area more than the remaining daylight.  That's okay.  I celebrated this night by popping my back, soaking in a tub of hot water and bubble bath and downing some ibuprofen.

Ahh .. the next Sunday and it's another nice day.  Already started by laying the pavers at the steps going down to the unfinished basement where the washer and dryer is.  The ground is uneven so I had to sink one of those concrete thingees at the step level and incline it up to the pavers.  Still had to grade the pavers down a tad to meet it.

Ahhh .. pretty much finished laying the bricks now.  You'll notice I took some of the concrete thingees from the stack against the house and used them on the right-hand side.  Ran out of paver bricks but it all fits nicely like that.  I think I'll plant wildflowers or Lazy Susans in the holes of the concrete.

And now for the last piece of the puzzle: the sand.  Whenever you put down paver bricks, you have to sweep sand into the crevices to lock them in place and keep them from shifting under your feet.  This is even more important in this project because I didn't have sand underneath for a completely level area.

And I end with a cheesy staged photo of me sweeping the sand.  You can tell I'm jamming on my MP3 player .. Blair Packham and Jason Mraz and Jason Falkner.  I'll probably be sweeping the sand for the next week or so.  Wet it down, let it dry, sweep it more.  Etc.

 And voila.

 I present to you ... The Patio Project.