My track record with home fixes is mostly me flooding something and calling my dad, so you're already winning. Swapped our old toilet flapper for like 8 bucks a while back and the thing stopped running all night. Paid for itself in a month it felt like.

The chalk line trick works great on the footing, but saying it cut setup "from about 30 minutes to 10" makes it sound like the snapping is what saved you. The real time saver is not having to recheck every few bricks with a tape. I've done the same thing on tight radii and the powder mark holds up fine until somebody walks through it or it rains. Then you're re-snapping or worse, laying to a ghost line you can barely see. For a 140 brick run in Boise dry heat you were probably fine, but on a longer curve I'd snap it in chunks so you always have a fresh mark ahead of you.