Hello Again

My last post was back in April, not exactly meeting my goal of a post a week. But I have made a few changes to reduce the friction of publishing posts. In the meantime, I was busy this summer. A few things that kept me busy.

Patio Project

In May we tore up our old brick patio. Several months later I laid the final brick on our new patio. This was an intense project, and maybe something I should have hired out. But the pride I get when I look at it now is worth the blood, sweat (so much sweat), aches and pains.

Before, we had red bricks that were extremely uneven, lacked drainage, and had lost any semblance of a border.

Now we have brand new pavers on top of 8 inches of tamped down class 5 and leveling sand. We expanded it quite a bit by going straight across instead of “curving” like our old patio did.

In addition, we installed a drainage system. Our yard and house grade is a little wonky, so to make the patio sit above the grade of the yard we had to slope it inwards. So under the middle of the patio we installed a 50 gallon drain barrel with an overflow to the side yard. I installed a hidden drain which worked well all summer. I might write a longer post on this in the spring if it works well during winter and the thaw.

Retaining Wall

The back of our back yard ends in a steep drop to an alley. There must have been a retaining wall there years ago, but by the time we moved in it was gone. It was an overgrown, uneven eyesore, that was slowly eroding away. We cleaned it up by installing a new wooden retaining wall and extending the concrete block wall along the driveway. I expect we will need to replace it within 10 years, but it is a significant improvement at a reasonable cost. Excited to plant some native flowers in the spring.

ASL

At the prompting of my friend and business partner, I enrolled in my first college class in 20-ish years. I just wrapped up an accelerated version of ASL 1 and ASL 2 at Saint Paul College. This was a challenge, but I mostly enjoyed it. American Sign Language is such an expressive and fun way to communicate. I am looking for other ways to continue my learning, as another accelerated course is not in the cards for next year.

Converted a Closet to a Bar

Our dining room came with a coat closet, which makes some sense if we ever used our front door, which we do not. So my wife designed a bar and we made it happen. The brick is glued on, then we used actual mortar. The cabinets were custom made by a local company and they did great work. The light came from our last home. We had purchased it for the dining room then and still loved it, but could not figure out a good location for it herer. So this was a double win.

Oyster Shucking

It was just one evening, but I took an oyster shucking class on National Oyster Day. It was easier than I anticipated, and something I would be happy to do again. It was hosted by Smack Shack and came with several beverage pairings.

Yard Destruction

One of the outcomes of the patio build was the yard between my fence and the street was torn up. I had dreamed of getting rid of the turf grass there and took the opportunity to cover it in mulch. If you are ever looking for wood chips, Chip Drop is amazing.

I have several post ideas in my head, so hopefully I can end 2025 and start 2026 with some interesting content.