Yes, they sell stone dust that is ground stone that looks like fine sand but is gray. It shouldn't have pebbles in it. You need to go to a stone yard, of which there are a number in our granite-filled part of the country. One example is O'Mahoney's in Lawrence. There's also Stoneyard.com in Littleton, I think. This is a building material and I wouldn't waste time at big box stores and certainly not nurseries.

Pennsylvania is a state with a fair variety . . . What littlebug was saying was that labor costs per hour isn't a set rate. What one pays in well-off Philadelphia suburbs won't be what one pays in economically depressed areas and what might be the going rate in CA isn't going to be the same in OH or NH, big city or small town. "Aren't they literally just brushing it in with a broom and wetting it with a hose?" IME sweeping sand into the cracks in between brick or block is time consuming; one puts down sand and sweeps in many different directions, and then puts down more and repeats the process. If you don't want gaps and future heaving and cracking, it takes time. When you are paying someone labor, rolled into that is the cost of their tools, health insurance, liability insurance, time and gas money spent speccing out and tracking down materials, etc. etc., not just what you see them doing for the work on your sidewalk. All the things that make up the general cost of the job has to be divied up and included in that labor fee, along with their expertise. So whether it is reasonable as far as cost . . . is kind of up to you. Arre you willing and able to do the job? Are you satisfied with the quality of the work? Would you hire them again? If so, I'd say it most likely was worth the cost. Conventional wisdom is that one can have any two of three: fast, inexpensive, or done well.

As far as your paper plan goes, it is fine. But there are flaws in your steps and order of work. I take it that the current walk is 4' width ...? If not, you'll need to construct some new base under that portion. That will be a little messy in the doing, trying to keep dirt out of the existing base, but not impossible. You'll want the base to extend about 6" beyond the finished paver field in all directions, so you might have some base build anyway. Once you get to the point of a tamped base, you'll be ready to screed out the 1/2" of sand. (It can be paver base sand or "play" sand, which is a little easier as it is uniform small bits.) You have to guess the amount of compression that will occur once the pavers are tamped into the sand. You might be setting them 1/2" higher so when they're tamped they end up in the right place. (I usually set 3/4" higher but that's with 2 or more times the setting bed thickness you have.) You'll just have to play with it/experiment to get the setting bed thickness right. Then set all the pavers on the untamped, screeded setting bed until the field and border is complete (including any pavers that need cutting.) Install the plastic edge restraint. It will go at the outside of the paver, set a little lower (according to mfg. directions. I usually use 'old school,' hand-formed concrete edge restraint but it takes a little work with it to get the knack. If not installed correctly, which is easy, it is predisposed to fail. Otherwise, it's great.) Once the edge restraint is securely in place, you can tamp all the pavers down hard, increasing in firmness after the first pass. You'll need a steel tamper, which they sell at Tractor Supply if you have any by you. It would be much harder, impractical to tamp with a mallet. Once tamped and they all look smooth within the field, add masonry sand (or whatever you have) to sweep into the joints and tamp some more. After the joints seem filled, wet everything and tamp some more. When the joints are all filled and it won't compress any more, you are done.

Hi again! 3onthetree, wanted to report back that the landscapers cut tiny brick triangles to fill those gaps on the herringbone on the last day of the job. I don't know why, but the plan written by my landscape architect said a MAX gap of 1/8 inch. I don't see lippage. They installed the brick over a 5 inch crusher run base, with a layer of small gravel on top, saying that a sand base would not be advised because of my drainage issues... it wouldn't hold up. They used the plat compactor and then put in the polymeric sand, and I think they compacted again (I was in the back of the house so I'm not entirely sure). The landscapers did try to talk me out of using clay brick when we set up the job, but the concrete holland bricks they offered didn't have colors I liked. They were basically gray or tan, and I didn't want to have to deal with the sealing. All of the contractors I spoke with only offered one brand of clay brick, which is made 1.5 hours from here. I assumed they offered it because it was "local", but I'm clearly no expert on landscaping supplies. Anyhow, they gave us what I asked for. I did get an answer to my question about cutting the soldiers (thank you to all who replied), and I'm less concerned about that now that the sand is in. Others were right that it wouldn't look so odd with the sand. Also, the contractor said he'd come back to add more polymeric sand over the next couple of weeks. I do think we got about what we paid for.