Stair debacle --> success (as usual thanks to Mom)

Labor Day weekend... everyone out of town... perfect time to tackle probably the most labor intensive home project yet = building new stairs to my house.

Problem with current stairs:
* they are made out of crumbling lava rock
* they are on the wrong side of the house so that when you walk up in the winter, you have to cross the icy driveway to get to the front door

So I get on my work clothes, measure out my distance to cover from sidewalk to porch and set off to my fav store: Lowe's. Where not only do I find some lovely pavers that I decide will work very well (and for only about $80), but also am even offered by the guy who loads my truck for another set of hands to help unload them... umm... thanks but I'd rather just be a bad ass on my own. So I get my pavers hauled home and unloaded on the sidewalk and get to work. Plan was to dig out grass and move rocks in current yard setup to build a set of stairs about 2ft in from the driveway on the left side. That 2ft gives me room for the rain-chain I have to put in once I put a gutter on the porch roof so that water doesn't continue to drip straight onto my driveway and 1) crack it and 2) freeze it, making it even more dangerous in the winter. I think I'll line that 2ft with outdoor lights and some annuals.

Step 1: dig and push and roll big boulders out of my way down to the sidewalk where I plan to make a rock wall. (Neighbors across the street have a yard sale and stare uninterested all day.)
Step 2: I set the 16"x16" paver down and level it back-to-front, side-to-side, and diagonally.
Step 3: it's never close to level so I jam a bunch of dirt under it and try to level again.
Step 4: I take an 8"x16" brick and build the next step up.
Step 5: after an exhausting first hour (those damn things are heavy) and three steps in (I figured for about 18 pavers total so... not far) I run into what I thought was just a mid-size rock to move, which ends up being a Titanic-iceberg rock weighing... I'm guessing... about 200lbs and sunk in a hole below the level of the driveway
Step 6: spend the next 2 hrs fruitlessly trying to dig out the boulder, roll the boulder, eventually reposition the boulder so that I can build the steps over it and it can act as a solid base (thanks neighbors, thanks, cause I'm sure it really looked like I had that under control and was successful in what I was doing)
Step 7: fill in the giant hole and build my step over the boulder

Step 8: realize that I feel so crappy in part because I've forgotten to eat lunch or drink anything, have a little frustration cry (hey, it's just energy in motion, sometimes you just gotta get it out) and a snack, give up for the night
Step 9: wake up the next morning and decide that, in fact, my steps are WAY too steep. It looks like the dirt I've packed under, because they are so far above the driveway and natural elevation, will eventually spill out the sides, compromising the safety of my homemade stairs
Step 10: wait until Mom gets home for their weekend trip to tell her that dog-sitting can be off-set by helping me with this project; AND nurse my poor bruised body; everything hurt plus I had huge bruises on both knees from kneeling on one paver while setting another (I think I have injury still from the car accient in my knees)

WORK DAY #2, but this time with help!

Step 11: we pull apart the stairs I spent 6 hours building in... about 15 minutes. And head to Lowe's again to see if we can find something to help set the stairs more solidly. We come back with cement glue.

Step 12: we unearth my boulder and with two people (and my awesome neighbor Brian for part of it, who happened to walk by at the right moment) we roll the boulder out of the way down to my rock wall

Step 13: in two days of work, we finally finish all the steps. Most are now two-long so that you don't step as high each step.

Current issues:
* argh.......... I think the person walking by is right..... they should be two pavers wide
* sigh.......... I think my neighbor, who finally (once we were done) came over to take a look, is right..... there should be a railing
If I want to do it right. If I want my homemade stairs (vs hiring a professional) to make the cut