The bricks have landed. . .

My son was not feeling well today and spent the better part of the day in bed.  My dad came by around 9 AM and was a great help.  Thanks Dad!

The morning started off by leveling the first course of bricks.  I had purchased two pieces of 1/2" black pipe last night to screed the sand and make everything level. After placing the first course of retaining wall, I filled in with crushed stone.

The second course of the retaining wall went in quickly.  I used some construction adhesive to bond the two layers of the wall together.  Once the middle was filled in with more crushed stone to within two inches of the top, I filled in with a course sand first and tamped it down.
After tamping the course sand, I then used leveling sand to create a sturdy base for the brick pavers.  I also used construction adhesive to mate the bricks to the paving wall.  When all the bricks were in place, I used polymeric sand to fill the gaps between the bricks.  I found that some sand was escaping along the back and left edge, so I used a small bead of adhesive to fill the edges.  This worked well and was not noticeable.  
The brick landing took the better part of the morning.  In the afternoon, it was back to SketchUp to tweak the stair stringer details now that I had the exact landing to deck height.  

Once the details were set, we set up in the garage and started cutting the stringers.  Had to go to Lowe's to get a 2x12 when I found that one of the lumberyard stringers was cracked beyond use.  I had to cut my own stringers because the store bought stringers didn't have enough rise to reach the deck from the ground.  A second advantage was that my stringers are attached under the deck instead of hanging a second piece of wood under the joist to catch the stringer.  It looks a whole lot better in my opinion.
We decided to call it quits once the stringers were in place.  I'm behind schedule from where I wanted to be at this time, but I'm meeting another one of my goals - enjoying the summer.   Despite being behind, I'm feeling good about the progress and don't want to rush the finish details.