15 / 517

The laying of bricks, the culminating event of this project, is the worst job yet. I figure it took me a bit over 2 hours to lay 15 bricks. Frustrating. I was definetly getting faster toward the end, and it will be a bit easier once I’m up higher rather than scrabbling on my knees.

Getting the mortar to adhere to the side face of the brick is the hardest bit, I’m yet to get a good system going there. I tried smearing the side face with mortar, and some of it would hold on there, then jamming the brick up against that. But like a young boy being told to give his older girl cousins a hug, he just didn’t want to get in there close. My most successful technique from this point was poking mortar into the gap with a stick. Amatuer. I am amatuer.

I hope my mortar mix is ok. It looks pretty dry, but I figure I need it like that in order to push it into position. The bricks do feel really solidly anchored once they are down, so that has to be a positive thing.

My line of bricks wasn’t particularly straight, nor was it level. The level was the fault of the foundation, so over a number of layers I’ll bring it back to horizontal. The straight though is my fault, I just need to be more careful.