And you better believe I’m yelling! 😀 Y’all, how long have I been waiting for a driveway? Eleven years! We’ve been in this house eleven years without a driveway, and it’s finally happening next week. I’m so excited I can hardly concentrate on anything else. I’ll share with you how this all came about, but first, let me back up a bit.
The first time I drove by this house to take a look at it, the first thing I noticed was that it didn’t have a driveway. That alone was almost a deal breaker, but I tried to have an open mind because it was a fixer upper in desperate need of some TLC (which is what I wanted), it was in the city (a non-negotiable to me — I’m not a country girl), and it was on a one-acre lot (incredibly hard to come by in the city). So while I hated that it didn’t have a driveway, I tried to push past it.
All that it had was an old gravel driveway, with most of the gravel displaced at that point, and which had largely been taken over by weeds. And the driveway went from the street directly to the garage.
And as you know, over the years, that garage was turned into my studio, and we had a carport added to the back of the studio. We still had no driveway, and at that point, we needed an even longer driveway (about double the length of the original driveway).
We had the driveway priced years ago, and the estimate we were given was about $20,000 to go from the street, to the side of the house, and have it stop so that it lined up with the back of the carport. We had another person a couple of years later give us a general estimate, and it came to the same amount. But I didn’t just want the driveway to stop right there. I knew I also wanted to extend it to the back of the workshop, but I figured we’d have to do this in stages because of the cost. In fact, you can see how I wanted it on the landscape design.
So the driveway has always been in our list of things to do, but it never reached the top priority. So here we were, eleven years later, and still with no driveway.
Fast forward to last week. I had just had my workshop built a couple of weeks ago, and now I needed a ramp going from the end of the carport to the garage door of the workshop.
I weighed the pros and cons of building a wood ramp or pouring concrete, and Matt and I both agreed that concrete would be ideal. A friend of ours had given me the name of the man they used for their concrete driveway, so I gave him a call and he came out to look at the project and take some measurements.
While the concrete man was here, I had him not only give me an estimate for the ramp from the carport to the workshop, but I also explained that at a later date, we’d be pouring a concrete driveway, probably in two different sections at two different times, and I asked him to give me a price for those separately as well.
Well, he gave me the prices, and I couldn’t believe it!! The price for all three projects — ramp, driveway, and driveway extension — came to about what I expected for the driveway alone. I was so excited! I told him that I’d have to talk to Matt about the order in which he wanted to get these things done, and that we’d probably want the ramp done now, and then maybe in a few months, we’d do Phase 1 of the driveway, and maybe next summer, we’d do Phase 2 of the driveway. But when I shared the prices with Matt, he said, “Let’s just do it all now.”
WHAT???!!!! OH MY GOSH!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!
So the concrete man jumped to action immediately and sent his guys over yesterday to remove the old 11-foot chain link gate and the two small sections of fence on either side.
Just seeing that fence taken out was so exciting to me! I’ve been looking at that eyesore for eleven years, and it had gotten to the point that it was completely useless. It wouldn’t close because it dragged the ground so much. So not only was it ugly, but it was useless.
They had quite a time getting those sections of fence out because the area was so grown over with trash trees (hackberry and such) that had grown in and through the fence.
But my goodness, just getting the gate out made a huge difference!
Most everything went smoothly until they got to these poles. They had a heck of a time getting these out. But of course, they finally succeeded.
And here it is with the old fence sections and the huge gate gone. What a difference already!
And now today, the tree guys are here getting all of that overgrowth and those trash trees cut down, grinding stumps, and getting everything ready for concrete next week. WOOHOOOO!!! So this view is about to change drastically.
I finally get to say goodbye (and good riddance) to this old unkempt gravel driveway, and I’ll have a proper concrete driveway that leads from the street, to the side of the house, and back to the carport.
The driveway will go all the way past my workshop, and will line up with the far wall of the workshop. (Say hello to Tiger, the neighborhood stray cat who hangs out mostly at my house because I feed him every day. 😀 ) The driveway will meet up with the little porch outside the side door of the studio, and then just past the air conditioner unit, it’ll meet up with the carport.
And then behind the carport it’ll meet up with the ramp to my workshop. Sidenote: As I was taking pictures this morning, I caught sight of something I’ve never seen before. There’s a deer in my back yard. Can you see it? Tiger’s looking right at it, and has the fluffiest tale I’ve ever seen, and the fur on his back is standing on end. In eleven years, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a deer in my yard.
Anyway, all of this area is being cleared out today. All of these trees and overgrowth are being sent through the wood chipper right now as I write this. It’s an exciting day!
And while they’re here, they’re going to get all the rest of this mess cleared up that was left from the frantic tree trimming that had to happen the morning that the workshop build started.
And they’ll clear out all of the branches that I trimmed the day before the workshop was built. I put those in two big piles under these trees. I know a couple of you were nervous about that and the fire hazard it presented. So after today, your worries will be gone. 🙂
And after next week, this view will be drastically different.
Back in 2018, I got some spray paint and painted lines on the ground to see what my curved driveway would look like. Here’s an idea of where the driveway will go…
Anyway, I’m so excited. After waiting so long, it actually seems like it’s happening really fast now! 😀 He said they can start early next week. I sure hope that means Monday!
UPDATE:
These tree guys are making quick work of this! This area with the overgrowth of trash trees along the fence to the left of where our driveway will go (i.e., the trees that make the fence barely visible, if at all)…
…now looks like this…
Now it looks like a driveway can actually fit in there!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
