Today I will like to share with you our lovely new vast vista of concrete. It will probably look a bit boring to you. I have to tell you, it is most definitely NOT boring to us. This has greatly improved our life. The area we got concreted was formerly gravel and potholes and one heck of a mess in wet weather.
The concrete was done in 3 separate pours because there is a large rectangular area with a side triangle out the back which needed quite a bit of shaping and a drain put in. In the above photo you can see the triangle, and you can see the area which has some of our old gravel there. I am thinking this might be a great area for a cactus garden – inspired by River.
This is the drain side and you can see my Polo is happily chilling out in her new and much improved home.
There were also two pours for the driveway itself – one for the back half, and one for the front half. This photo shows where the first pour and second pour meet, taken from the laundry door facing the back of the property.
The laundry was a room where gravel regularly got tracked in. This meant doing the laundry 99% of the time you would step on a piece of gravel. I can tell you that stepping on one piece of gravel as a surprise to yourself is akin to stepping on a lego with bare feet, which I am sure has been declared a form of torture by multiple governments *and* is almost certainly used in some cultures as a replacement ritual for the ritual of stepping on hot coals..
This view is taken from the laundry door and shows where the second and third pour meet. Our gates had to have some work done as one of the concrete trucks got bogged out there and ended up hitting the fence, sending everything out of square and the gates no longer met in the middle.
The laundry which opens onto this area is the entrance to the house which we use the most. This is the best place to bring in groceries without worrying about a cat escaping, plus, you can pull the car boot (trunk for our US friends) right up next to the door.
Here you can see the concrete sealer shining in the sun. The driveway sparkles like a *Twilight vampire! YAY!
This final shot shows where the new concrete and the old driveway at the front of the house meet. The old driveway is white concrete with one of those colour spray ons over the top. For the new driveway, the concretor suggested adding some grey colour into the concrete itself to match the spray on – it would last a lot longer and work better for everyone. I think it turned out much better than the original driveway.
Every day this week I have gone out to open the gate for the other half when it is his home time, and every single day, I have found myself trying to step *up* to the old concrete because I am so used to stepping up right there. When I go out the laundry door, I find myself hitting the concrete much earlier than my body expects the ground to be there. It is a massive change and it is taking some getting used to.
Would you like to join in? The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to River at Drifting Through Life, somewhere in your post
3. leave River a comment so that she knows you’ve joined in and can come over and see what you’ve posted.
* No Twilight vampires were harmed in the making of our concrete driveway. :)
Weekly Wrap Up –
This week I was quite determined to stay at home and go absolutely nowhere, after two weeks of “Toodling” and “Gallivanting” with holidays and my Aunt and Uncle visiting. Don’t get me wrong, I loved having them visit – it is just lovely to sit still in one place after so much travelling about.
Last Sunday we did the fortnightly shop, and I settled back in at home intending to write quite a few posts for the blog(s) and chill out with the kitties, some colouring in, NYPD Blue, a little Lumosity game I have become quite addicted to, and catching up on my reading.
The LCN Jig, It May Be Up.
I spotted this in my feedjit earlier today –
I guess we’ll have to wait and see if they keep using the same name. That particular post continues to get a lot of views and comments here on the blog
Did you miss a post this week?
Monday – I told you about my holidays.
Wednesday – Sipowicz Says #1 – quotes from NYPD Blue will be a monthly feature here on the blog for the foreseeable future.
Thursday – I mentioned that 7 would be airing the first episode of Mr Robot. You might want to circle back and read my angry comments that I left on Friday while waiting for the show to actually air, for your own amusement. :) Can you guess how many minutes it was delayed by? Did you catch the show? If yes, leave a comment over there, I would love to know what you thought of it.
Friday – we revisited the Six Feet Under finale.
Over to you –
Did you get up to anything interesting this past week? :)
I need to have my front drive concreted. Its getting a huge pot hole at the front. Ugh. The photos above have given me some food for thought.
As for the feedjit.. odd but with what you do, maybe not. I have a few weird ones in my feedjit butnothing like this
We filled in our potholes a few times with bags of gravel but there came a point at which we mostly gave up. I would have trusted the other half to build this himself because he is quite a ninja of building and design, but the landlord (Mum and Dad) asked us to get quotes – one of them was about 18,000! but we both liked that contractor the best, plus we felt like it would have been a driveway you could land a 747 on. I think having that level of separation from meeting the contractors is a good thing for someone paying for the job at a house they don’t live in – they picked another contractor and it turned out quite well we think. :)
It looks fabulous! I don’t think it’s boring at all. It looks clean and sharp. :)
Yay for not boring.. :) We’re loving it!
It looks wonderful. And I know that unexpected step well – like when you brush your hair after a signfiicant cut.
I’m still doing it and it has been a week of opening the gate now.. :) They say it takes 21 days to build a new habit so I am guessing 3-4 weeks of stepping up is coming my way. :)
Great work. My sister has crushed rock to her front door and it drives me crazy and I can’t wear only socks inside.
Yep, that lego slash gravel foot pain is really unpleasant and most people will do anything to avoid it! :) I always find it 10 times more painful when carrying a fully loaded laundry basket.
it looks really really nice and that small side patch is perfect for a cactus/succulent garden. I have only succulents, I don’t like the spines/thorns on cactus.
They’re the same kind of thing in my mind.. :) I will have to learn more about them if I want to grow them, I guess! ;)
Beautiful concrete. Feels so good to admire a project like that!