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I just witnessed some insane parking fail.  Normally I’d just twitter this, but I need well more than 140 characters to explain what I just witnessed.  So, this is my best attempt to explain it, but I have a feeling I might need to create some images to truly describe everything.

First, the set up.  My neighbors have a one car garage that never has a car in it; they always park in their driveway or on the street.  Today, it looked like they are having a cookout.  They had an empty garage with two cars (one behind the other) parked in the driveway.  On the street, there was one car parked to the right of the driveway and another to the left of the driveway.

A car pulled up that was full of occupants.  They decided to park in front of the driveway, blocking both of the cars in, and left their hazard lights on.  This was what drew my attention to the entire situation.  There was plenty of street parking available, so why not pull up 15 feet and park there?

Four minutes later, two different individuals came out of the house.  One was the owner of one of the cars in the driveway and needed the car with the hazard lights on to move so they could leave.  One of them jumped in the car with the hazard lights and attempted to move it out of the way.  In the process of doing this, they backed into one of the cars that was parked on the street.

After the parked-in car was able to leave, the previously illegally parked car decided to park in the driveway.  The problem is they didn’t pull up all the way, so the backend of the car was still blocking the sidewalk.  Less than a minute later, the original driver of that car came out and moved it on the street, in a legal parking spot.

So, in the span of 5 minutes, this car parked three different times by two different drivers.  Two of the parking jobs were illegal and there was a minor fender bender in the process.   After all of this, the car ended up parking in a location that was available from the very beginning.

As I’ve posted about previously, we’ve recently built a new patio out of pavers.  We also hired a contractor to put in a Sliding Glass door and just finished painting and staining, so the project is finally complete.  Here are some before and after pictures.

Before

After

Last week, we tackled one of our first major house projects.  In a few weeks, a contractor is coming in to put in a Sliding Glass door.  We decided that we were going to build a patio out of pavers before the Contractor showed up.  Since I read many different ways to build a paver patio, I figured I should post our method and the results.

1. Excavate the area for the Patio.
   We measured out the location for the patio and dug out the area, plus about a foot more on each side.  This gave us wiggle room so we didn’t have to deal with the sod during the actual process of building the patio.  For our patio, we dug out about 19 by 15 feet.  We dug down about 8 inches deep.  This took Molly and I 4 evenings after work.  The most difficult part was trying to find clever places to place the dirt we were excavating.
2. Acquire the materials.
   
   On Friday, we had our Pavers, gravel and sand delivered in our driveway.   For our project, we had 6 tons of 3/4 limestone gravel and 1 ton of pavers sand (we ended up needing 2 tons of sand).  We also had 3 bags of polymer.  Finally, we rented a plate compactor and had a total of 5 people working on the project.  Honestly, I think that was the perfect amount of people.
3. Level off the Excavation area.
   On Saturday morning, we tried our best to level off the excavated area.  It wasn’t perfectly level at this point, but it gave us a good base to work from.
4. Fill with about 2-2.5 inches of gravel.
   We shoveled the gravel into the excavated area and leveled it off.  We used a 2×4 and two pipes to do this.  We simply set down the two pipes about 4-5 feet away from each other, and filled that area with gravel.  We then took the 2×4 over the pipes to level off that area.  We repeated this step until the entire area was filled with gravel.
5. Run Plate Compactor over gravel.
   
   We ran the plate compactor over the area to compress the gravel.  We ran over it once, made some changes with a rake and then ran over it again.
6. Fill with another 2-2.5 inches of gravel.
   Repeat step 4.
7. Run Plate Compactor over gravel again.
   Repeat step 5.
8. Fill with 1-1.5 inches of sand.
   
   Once again, very similar process as steps 4 & 6.  The only difference is this was with paver sand and at this point, we had to make sure it was level.  We gave it a slight gradient away from the house so that rain wouldn’t leak into the house.  Also, do not walk on this once it is level and complete.
9. Start Placing the Pavers.
   
   Start at one corner and start placing the pavers.  Use a mallet to nudge them together.  After we had 4 feet each direction, we measured between 3 feet one direction and 4 feet the other direction.  If the diagonal is at 5 feet, your patio is squared off and you are fine.  If it isn’t square, then you will need to make adjustments.  Luckily for us, it was squared up.
10. Frame it together.
    Once the pavers were laid, we framed it with some plastic paver edging.  We simply put this around the pavers on the edges and staked it into the ground.
11. Cover patio with Polymer.
    
    This is the step that locks it all together.  We put 3 bags of polymer on the patio and swept it in the cracks.
12. Run Plate Compactor again.
    We ran the plate compactor over the polymer covered patio one more time.
13. Sweep off Polymer, spray with water.
    Finally, we swept off the excess polymer and sprayed the entire patio down with water.  We waited a day for everything to set and the project was complete.
14. Fin
    
    Now, I just can’t wait for the contractor to put in the sliding glass door.

Most of you already know about my trouble with facial hair.  I previously wrote about it in regards to my beard.  I grew it out again out of laziness, but tonight I decided to make a change.

I am going to Cleveland for the weekend with friends, so I thought it would be an excellent time to sport a moustache.  The problem is my moustache area is really, really blonde.

That’s where a purchase of Just For Men comes in.  I bought a pack in Dark Brown for $8 and dyed my moustache.  I was a bit concerned about it since it’s meant for people with gray hair, not blonde hair.

So, what do you think?  I’m sure I’ll keep it for laughs this weekend, but should I stick with it?  Go to work on Monday with this Magnum PI?