Stories by Marja Chana

Letter to Kathy  (how to build a brick sidewalk)

12/1/02

Dear Kathy –  

It was great to hear back from you and know you’re still alive and kicking!  What’s it been….two years?  three?  I moved here 4 years ago--has it been that long?  I have no memory anymore!  

I have thought of you some times while I’ve worked on my house.  You’re the only other woman I know besides me who isn’t gay who works on her house all the time, doing what are more commonly “guy things.”

My first or second year here, I spent 10 months pulling out the ivy in the backyard.  I rented one of those giant blue recycling barrels for plants…I think they’re about 300 gallons.  Every other week, I stuffed that thing so full of ivy I could sometimes barely move it to the curb.  On the “off weeks” I’d stuff the 30 gallon trashcan (I produce almost no trash).

After I finished that, I bought four yards of mushroom compost.  (It was supposed to be weed-free.  It turned out to be more dirt-free than weed-free).  I filled the former ivy area with rose bushes, tulip bulbs, and mums, along with roses, some neat blue stuff I really like, lilies, fig trees, etc etc.  (Amazing how we create more work for ourselves, isn’t it? I can't keep up with the upkeep).

Now it was now time to put in the new segment of brick sidewalk I had been planning for a year or two.  That’s how long the bricks sat—I’d gotten a really good deal on them (perhaps).  I had covered an annoying corner-grassy area in my yard with black plastic for over half a year, to create another planting area (I sure have a lot of them—it’s a double lot!).  So, now I had to put in the stretch of sidewalk, maybe four feet by twelve.  This sidewalk took me about a year.

Have you ever done it?  I’m going to assume that you haven’t; if you have, I’d be interested to know what you did similarly, what you did differently.  First I dug out the dirt.  That took me forever.  It wasn’t just a question of digging.  I also had to do a lot of pick work.  That’s hard stuff!  Then, I lined the edges with 6x12 pressure treated boards, which I had first water-sealed.  They only cost about $8.00 each, and were well worth it. You put the boards on their edge…the hard part is getting them:

(1) Level with the nearby ground;

(2) Straight up and down, and

(3) An equal distance apart. 

To do the three things above, go buy a nice level...something that's at least three feet long. If you have a wider sidewalk, you can put a board across things, with the level on top.  Buy one with a yardstick-type measure on it, if you see one.  You need to own a really nice tape measure, anyway (one where the measure is thick enough to stand up in the air, instead of flopping over like dahlias after a freeze in the fall), so it's ok if your level doesn't have measures on it.

You will do yourself a real favor by buying what's commonly referred to as a "chop saw."  It's a saw attached to a holder--it will cut would straight down and/or at angles.  It has something to protect your hands from the blade, just like a sewing machine has something to protect your fingers.  Be really, really careful; unplug it every time you're not sawing something.  You can get one for about $99 on sale (Christmas and Father's Day are the best times), and it will allow you to cut everything from window frame molding to big heavy pieces of wood with practically no effort.  Zippppppppppp and the wood is cut!  Wear leather gloves (wood is hard on your hands) and eye protection.

So, dig out the space where the bricks are going to be, and lay your two pieces of wood along the sides.  Next, go buy gravel (2 inches) for the bottom, and buy sand (1 inch) for the top.  Be sure you've dug deep enough for the gravel, sand, and bricks!

I was supposed to line the bottom with gravel, and then sand, but I don’t own a pickup truck,  If I had, I would’ve done it.  Instead, I borrowed the seven 22 gallon storage tubs I’d bought for George for going through the junk in his garage, and took them to the gravel place in my van.

Imagine the surprise/amusement on gravel guy’s face when I drove back to the sand with my 1970 VW van!.  Poor guy had to fill the tubs by hand…about 100 pounds or more each.  I didn’t get anywhere as much as the sand I’d paid for, but it was so cheap I didn’t care.  To this day I regret my rudeness in not giving the guy a tip.

At home, I couldn’t move the tubs.  I had to shovel each one out by hand, into the wheelbarrow, until I could lift them.  I lined the bottom of the sidewalk area in sand, and gave most of the sand away to a friend at work.  

I used a simple leveler for the sand…two boards nailed together.  One was long enough to reach across the two 6 x 12’s and thus slide along the length.  The second was shorter, spaced to fit between the boards.  It’s nailed to the longer one so that it’s the width of a brick you’re going to lay.  Then you use that the smooth the sand.  When you put the bricks on top, they come out level with the two boards.  In theory, anyway.  

In my case, the moles came along almost immediately and messed things up unbelievably.  I probably should have used heavy concrete at the bottom, under the sand, to keep the little bastards away.  And then, it didn’t help that whatever it is I was putting in my bird feeder, almost right above, sprouted like crazy all over the new sidewalk, especially where the moles were digging.  Like I said, it’s SO easy to create more work! I should work for the government!  Oh wait, I do.

But it wasn’t so bad.  It actually LOOKS like a brick sidewalk, and actually blends in well with the existing sidewalk that was already there.  The sidewalk I had admired turned out to be OK, but not great, when looked at closely.  And the sidewalk I built looked no worse—perhaps even a little better, because it was lined with wood.

Along the way of doing these projects, I had three life-changing events, two of which led to EVEN MORE PROJECTS.  (This will be the last time I mention creating more work for myself…sure as hell is true, ain’t it?).

In no particular order, starting to wear reading glasses very seriously—I wear them around my neck at work now!—, taking my chop saw out of the box in which it’d been sitting for 13 months, and buying a 1500 psi electric pressure washer at Costco.

Oh, wow, I’ve written a lot.  I need to get away from the computer.  I hope you write back!

Hugs, Marja