1988: The Brick Wall
Craig has always wanted a house with a wall around it. I agree that it's a nice idea. He costed it out for our yard and discovered that it would cost ten to fifteen thousand dollars, even doing most of it himself. So he contented himself with building a piece of a wall to block off one corner of the yard where we wanted a patio.
First he built the patio. Then he poured a footer for the wall. Then he got the bricks and stacked them where the wall would be. And there they stayed for two years. At left: the dry-stacked brick wall.
Every so often he would get a bid for laying the bricks into a wall. Craig, you see, is great with concrete, but he is no mason. I remember one bid of $1500. For ten feet of wall! Ridiculous.
Finally one day our neighbors down the street built a retaining wall in front of their house so they could level their lawn. Craig liked the looks of the wall, so he stopped by to talk to the head of the crew. This was Sixto Acosta.
Sixto built the wall for a very fair price, and this was the beginning of a good long relationship. Sixto built the barbeque, laid the tile on the back porch and the courtyard, and built the brick pillars for the original courtyard.
At the left end of the wall is a sweet little concrete figure of a lamb. We call her Agnes of Laredo because that's where we got her.
