It is finally over.  Finished.  This project has been a millstone around my neck for roughly fifteen years.  I finally finished the brick walkway to the front door of our house.  I tell time, as far as our life in this 102 year old house goes, by which project we were working on.  Year one new furnaces, year two siding, year five the chimney came down, year ten the third floor remodel, and year twelve the second floor remodel. 

Originally, we had begun working on the front walk about year fifteen.  A three story chimney that was not original to the house had to be taken down leaving behind large volumes of brick.  I immediately made plans to create brick walkways all around our house in the beautiful gardens that have yet to be planted.  The first setback came when I realized that used brick comes with lots of mortar that is very hard to remove.  So the bricks had been sitting in a pile in the door yard for seven or eight years already.  Now and then I would spend a couple of days pounding mortar off bricks as a sort of therapy.  So on a sunny, year fifteen day, Mom and I set up viewing chairs on the porch and our retired neighbor heckled from his window across the street as my husband cleared the turf between the string lines for our new walkway, only to find that there was already a brick walkway exactly where we had placed our lines.  It wasn’t very even and some bricks were missing, but it was enough to give me an excuse to let the mortar on my bricks dissolve a while longer. 

Now at year twenty-two, the walk is finally finished and I am very pleased with how it turned out.  Maybe the stress of a twenty-year-old son put me over the edge, or at least increased my need for therapy.  But starting in September, I pounded mortar and hauled sixteen bricks at a time in my wheel barrow until 400 bricks later the walk is complete, along with an outdoor fireplace.  And I still have at least another 500 bricks left, so I don’t have to worry about paying for therapy, yet.