This past weekend, my brother and his wife were looking for a home renovation project. They had already finished work on their own home, and were looking for something new to tackle. Yes, they’re insane.

So, I gave them a project to work on. We wanted to remove our cracked and ugly front sidewalk and put something new in place. We had decided instead of replacing the sidewalk with more boring, grey concrete, we would put in some nice colorful paving stones. This decision dovetailed nicely with my brother’s extensive experience in installing decks and patios with paving stones.

The result of the project is nothing short of wonderful. See for yourself below! The old photo on the left, and the new on the right.

There’s an Flickr photoset available that includes step-by-step pictures of the entire project, from before to after, and everything in between. I even added descriptions to all the photos that outline in very basic terms what we did on this project. It was a big, long, exhausting day, but thankfully it was beautifully sunny, and we were working the entire time under a very shady front yard. Many thanks are necessary to my brother and his wife for their efforts in making this project a reality.

Father’s Day was spent simply. I put the finishing touches on the sidewalk, adding a few grains of sand to one side. And then spent a couple of hours with my oldest son assembling my Father’s Day gift: a brand new hammock. My old one, purchased when I was a brand new father back in 2002, had deteriorated after years of use and neglect (NOTE: being left out in the cold and rain does not help rope hammocks stay fresh!) and it had been tossed out recently on a community large-item trash pick-up day. I had told myself that I no longer wanted a new hammock, that it wasn’t that useful, nor relaxing, and I never afforded myself the time to waste within its comfortable embrace; but secretly, I yearned for a replacement, as well as a quiet, lazy afternoon in which to enjoy it. After a couple of hours of effort (where my son Caleb probably learned a few new words!), the new hammock was assembled, and lazy loafing was engaged.

All in all, despite the sheer amount of manual labor I performed (a rarity, I can assure you – I am a creature of comfort), it was an overall productive and enjoyable weekend. I need another couple more of those before the new baby arrives.