I Dig It

 It's time for concrete! This is going to be a massive pour, I've never tried anything of this scale before. The total sidewalk is about 120 ft long, going to be a 4" thick pour and I'm going to put bricks in a pattern for the control joints and more bricks for an edge treatment. Plus, of course, a center feature in front of the stairs and the drain lines have to run under the sidewalk. 

Start with the feature at the end of the stairs. 

That's a lot of digging. Keep everything level (well, sloped away from the house)

Dirt forms across the drain line

Now with more rebar

Still have to deal with that drain line

My back is already starting to hurt

Pouring the stair feature

The first section is filled in! I should have made the center base thicker

The center feature is complete

Also concreted around the drain boxes

Added the first side section

Working my way back to the shed

2 sections like this takes 9 of those 80-lb bags of quickrete

The growing sidewalk

It takes 9 80lb bags of high strength quickrete to pour two of those sections. So every time I can buy more bags, I'll pour more sections. Watch it grow!