You know how you can wait years for something, never see any progress toward it, and then when it finally happens, you feel like things are moving at lightning speed? Yes, that’s how things have felt around here these past few weeks.
First, after planning and dreaming about a workshop for years and years, the time finally came and it was built in a day (for the most part). And now, we have decided to pour our driveway after eleven years of not having it, and once the ball started rolling, it seems to have picked up speed very quickly.
All the initial preparation work is done. That job involved removing a large number of junk trees that had grown in recent years. (I know calling hackberry trees “junk trees” may be a little controversial to some people, but most people around here call them junk or trash trees. But even if these trees had been oaks or pecans or something really nice, they still would have been Unfortunately, they had to be cut down, so I’m glad they were hackberries (I don’t feel so guilty about cutting them down).
So this is what it looked like before they got here yesterday morning (although the 11 foot chain wire gate had already been removed)…
And this is what it looks like now after they cut down all the trees yesterday, sent them to the wood chipper, and then came back early this morning and ground up all the stumps.
I can’t believe how much better it looks already! It will look so good with a concrete driveway!
I also had them trim the pecan tree out front to remove all the low branches that scraped the top of my truck every time I went back.
Then there were these two really big piles of limbs from the emergency limb removal that had to be done the morning the guys arrived to build my workshop. The image is a little misleading. I don’t think you grasp how big these piles really were.
So all of that was picked up and sent through the wood chipper.
They also did a lot of trimming and cleaning behind the shop. There is still a lot to do, but right now, the driveway is the focus. I just needed to remove the piles left over from the workshop and anything in the driveway.
On a curious note, it makes me laugh that all the people who have been on our property in the last few days (the concrete guy, the tree trimmers, the people who came to remove the fence and the gate) have commented that we have an empty yard. . far behind us. They are always surprised to discover that this is part of our destiny. I’m telling you, it’s very rare to have such a large piece of land within the city. That’s one of the main reasons I wanted to buy this house.
And then they also cleared all the large piles of brush I had accumulated from the branches I cut before my workshop was built, and trimmed the trees that were hanging low over where the driveway will extend behind my workshop.
And one last thing. They got rid of the junk tree that continues to grow in this area in front of the breakfast room. They cut it down and then ground the stump. So now I need to put something on it so it never appears again. That thing grows like a week. By the time I trimmed it down to make the electrical outlets on the side of the studio, the thing had AGAIN grown to at least 20 feet tall, if not taller. My mom has one on the back fence that grows about a foot a week, if not faster. It’s crazy!
So now everything is set up and ready to go. The fence and gate were removed. Trees removed. Stumps are planted well below ground level.
So what was the price for that prep work? $3,600.00. It seems like a completely fair price to me because all of that was something hard work, and it would have taken me a month of solid work to finish it all if I had tried to do it myself. In this way, everything was done in two days and now there is no delay for the concrete to begin its work.
Like I said, this has been a process of slow, slow, slow, slow, slow…..FAST! Hopefully we’ll see some entry ways start construction on Monday! And I’ll probably ask beforehand about a french drain where the workshop ramp meets the garage, as some of you suggested. I appreciate that advice, as I would never have thought of that.
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 labor, so I do most of the work in the house alone. You can learn more about me here.
