Choosing a Paver Color

The back/Kitchen door is the door we use on a daily basis. There is a path/sidewalk/a couple pieces of asphalt leading from the driveway to the big stone steps in front of the door. As ugly as it is, it wasn't exactly one of our top priorities. We're focusing on the interior problems first, and will deal with the exterior and landscaping when we're done. However... With all of the rain we've had this spring, the little path has gotten to be a huge annoyance. After only about an inch of rain, the pathway transforms into a stream. It must have been installed a long time ago, and incorrectly, because over time the asphalt has sunken in the ground. In some spots it is completely under the grass. In others it has sunken to form a "V". So if it is raining, or rained yesterday, you have to walk on the grass alongside the path. Which isn't any better than walking through the river path. The bottom 6" of my pants and shoes get soaking wet and I'm mad by the time I make it to the car.

Last week I saw a commercial for Lowe's saying they were having a Memorial Day stone sale. All stone pavers were on sale.. 20% off. While at Lowe's a couple days later (to get stuff to build the garden) I checked out the pavers. I didn't really love any of them... but if I had to choose one, I'd choose the cheapest one they had. Just plain bricks.. in red or gray. Nothing special, but I didn't like any of the expensive ones either, so why not just buy the least expensive ones? 

This Saturday we bought a sample of each color. R wanted red and I wanted gray, and arguing about it at home is usually better than doing it in the store :) The bricks sat outside for 2 days.. and of course, one of those days it rained. Before the rain, I still preferred the gray one. The top rock step is reddish in color, but the bottom one is more grayish. Both colors looked good next to the bottom step, but I thought that the gray looked better against the grass (and I hate red). But after the rain, the gray looked horrible! I can't even explain it. So red it is.. And they're only $0.38/each (though that really does add up when you realize you need 585 of them).

With the help of my dad's friend, we went and bought the bricks today. As big and heavy duty as his truck is, we still had to make two trips (luckily Lowe's is literally one mile down the road). It was horribly hot and humid today, so this is as far as we got:

They're piled up behind our garage.. hopefully we'll get a less humid weekend soon..