Plans For a New Driveway

Back in the summer I hinted that I had two bits of big news.  The first was a lot that we bought at the lake.  I can finally announce our second bit of big news, we are getting a new driveway.

We really need a new driveway.  Doesn’t everyone have grass growing in their driveway?

How about a huge pothole?  Or a bump so big that you have to slowly drive over it?  (The pothole and bump are from big trucks driving in and out when we built our addition in 2005.)

 

Our current driveway makes a half circle on the side of our house.

Because of this, people always enter our house through the screened porch, instead of using the front door.

The new driveway entrance will be at the front of the house.  We’ll still have the exit that you see above that is closest to the Explorer.  Where the Honda is parked will become yard.  To the right of the Honda will be a retaining wall and a Greenstone patio.  (Some excavation will have to be done to build the patio.)

Now we see the front of the house.  Picture entering here and exiting to the right of the Explorer.

The sidewalk will be removed, rerouted, and replaced.  The front porch will be updated with a different step.  We are using concrete pavers for both the driveway and sidewalks.  They will look similar to this:

Here’s the master plan that we’ve been agonizing over since late August.

We are not getting the landscaping outlined in green or red.  The beds will be formed and I’ll have to landscape them myself.  You can see in the back of the drawing where the patio will be built.  It’s outlined in red.  We won’t be getting the landscaping to the left and right of that patio.

Back in August, our landscaper painted lines on our yard to help us to visualize where the sidewalks and driveway will go. 

The bed that you see to the right in the above picture will be reworked by moving the soil to build a berm.  I have to dig out all of that plant material to keep to replant later.  There are several other areas where there’s plant material that needs to be moved to save it. 

Construction will start the second week in January and will be complete by March 1.  Our landscaper warned us that this project is going to be a MESS.  We can’t wait!  Let the mess begin!

I’m going to share some pictures from projects that our landscaper has done for others around town.

Wouldn’t you love to have this in your back yard?

How about this backyard paradise?  The little house that you see has a refrigerator for cocktail supplies.  The people that you see are relaxing on a pretty patio.

Here’s the cute little house!

 

A local driveway – you don’t see many concrete paver driveways where we live.  I think that the look will really catch on!

Now you’ve seen the before pictures.  I’ll have lots of during pictures and many, many after pictures. 

I’m joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday.