Y’all, I can’t believe how much progress has been made these past few weeks. We had my workshop built. We had the driveway poured. We had a ramp erected to connect the garage to the workshop. I finished my study. And yesterday, my mom and I completely cleaned the garage. A lot has happened in a relatively short period of time!
In fact, I was surprised that we finished the entire garage yesterday. I had my doubts that we could do it, but we did it and we did it. And everything looks very good!
I wish I could have power washed the garage and the small concrete pad next to the side door of the studio before taking pictures, but there wasn’t time for that yesterday and I don’t want to delay any longer. as we show them our new driveway. I was also very close to calling the guy who hauls my trash to come clean out my junk/scrap/demo pile in the backyard, but then I realized that if I made him come yesterday to do that, he’d be the one. first person to drive up my driveway. I couldn’t let someone else drive up my driveway before I had the chance! So I threw a tarp over my pile of trash. As soon as I drive down my driveway for the first time and pull into the carport, I’ll call him to pick up my pile of trash. So for now, let’s pretend it’s not there.
Let me remind you what the side of our house looked like just two weeks ago…
And now it looks like this…
I can’t get over what a HUGE difference this made to the curb appeal of our home!
And you guys, I’ve been waiting eleven years for this!!
You can still see where he used to park in front of the studio. But this curvy road turned out better than I expected. It’s so cute!
And now I feel very motivated to do some gardening. So far, I’ve talked about landscaping, but without the driveway in place, it was very hard for me to get excited because I knew the driveway would be an integral part of the overall plan. But now it’s in place and I’m ready to take landscaping ideas from concept to reality.
I took all these pictures this morning and it’s a pretty dreary day, so things are looking a little grayer than usual today.
And now that there’s a driveway that meets that little concrete pad under the side door of the studio, I can’t wait to build those steps! I never did because the way I want to build them meant the first step would be very high (the height of the step plus the height of the concrete pad, which is about an extra five inches), and that would have created a difficulty for my short legs. . But now that the step down from the concrete pad is gone and now meets the driveway, I’m excited to be able to build those steps. (And I need to do it very soon before the exposed OSB is destroyed.)
As you can see, everything is very gray right now. Gray concrete, gray paint. But I’ll leave it pretty, including some matching blue shutters for the workshop windows and some landscaping around it.
This is where you have to overlook my junk pile, which is even bigger after yesterday we combined the junk/demo pile with the scrap wood pile. But here’s a look at my new ramp that connects the garage to the workshop.
Oh, and look! Many of you in previous posts have mentioned that I need a better place for my trash cans (which were always somewhere in the front of the house). They fit perfectly here and this is a very convenient place for them!
Well, here are some more images presented without comments. Just tell me this is the most beautiful concrete you’ve ever seen.
The total cost of the entire driveway and ramp came to $23,700. That includes $3,600 to remove all the trees (although they also removed lots of branches from other areas of the front and back yard) and then $20,100 for the concrete. Concrete and labor cost $16,750 for the driveway (which is 167 feet long, 16 feet wide in most places, but 24 feet wide near the carport) and $3,350 for the ramp. The entire project (driveway and ramp) required 50 yards of concrete, which I’m told is half the amount used for the foundation of an average home.
I can’t wait to get out my pressure washer and clean the garage floor and side door step pad. I don’t know if I can get it clean enough to match the new concrete, but it will definitely clean up enough to look pretty close. And I would also like to be able to tear down that sunroom today. Now that things are starting to happen in the backyard, I hate looking at the back of that sunroom. But everything will happen with time. I just have to be patient. For now, I’ll just look the other way and admire my beautiful new driveway and ramp.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 upper that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has MS and can’t do physical work, so I do most of the I work at home alone. You can learn more about me here.
