Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Concrete Excitement

Who knew concrete could be exciting!? ;) One's definition of "exciting" does tend to change when one becomes a homeowner.

My new driveway, walkway, and front landing are done (except for some final cleanup tomorrow).

The new walkway is a vast improvement. It looks so much better, and it slopes properly away from the house... no more lake under the window!


The walkway is now level with the driveway. The old one had sunk quite a bit!

The new front landing looks GIGANTIC. But it will look much more appropriately scaled when I have the landscaping done. I'm thinking about a wrought iron railing. I can never have too much wrought iron. :)

There is a middle school just down the street, and wet concrete is a tempting target for kids... so I have parked myself in front of the window to keep an eye out. And to ensure no vehicles veer too closely, I have parked my car in front of the driveway.

(Aaaand I just had to go running out the garage door to chase away my neighbor's *$*#@! cat, who was strolling across the driveway like it owned the place (probably after using my yard as a litterbox). X( That damn cat is always everywhere it should not be. Luckily the concrete is almost dry and the cat wasn't heavy enough to leave paw prints.)

Yes, I did consider stamping bat shapes into the walkway. I managed to restrain myself. ;)

17 comments:

  1. Awesome!!! It looks terrific!! But I think you SHOULD have stamped bat shapes into the walkway, it would have made it even more appealing... ;-)

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    1. If it had been less sunny and hot outside, I probably would have done it. But my dislike of the daystar trumped my fondness for bats. ;)

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    2. Ahhh... Understood and totally agreed with!! :-)

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  2. This looks really good! The old steps seemed a bit scary (14cm?!) an no more lake. I'm curious to see the wrought iron railing (wrought iron is great)!
    Tea

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    1. Thanks! The old steps were so many kinds of wrong. :P

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  3. It's such a big improvement! I look forward to seeing it with landscaping

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    1. Not to pun my own name, but the yard has been my bane for about four years now. I'm never sure whether to laugh or cry over it. :P I can't wait to have proper landscaping done!

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  4. Daaaang, fancy! So sleek and pretty now =)

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    1. Proper steps, proper landing and everything! ;) Thank you!

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  5. I can get excited by concrete, but there again I'm an architectural technology student who has gained a new-found appreciation for the marvels of concrete. Those steps were a clear death trap, and I am so glad you get them sorted. It would be awful if you'd fallen off them and landed on the broken concrete around. I would have imagined that the pooling rainwater could be a burgeoning damp problem, so getting that sorted is also snazzy. The one thing I worry about when it come to having a new path or concrete laid around my house is worrying that whoever is contracting on it doesn't actually know what they're doing, because fixing wrong concrete is waaay beyond what I could do, and could get really expensive. I'm glad that yours turned out well :) It's looking good, too!

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    1. The National Building Museum in Washington, DC had an enormous exhibit on concrete which I found fascinating. I learned just how remarkable the stuff is. There's even concrete that hardens under water.

      I hate hiring contractors because so many of them do sloppy work and end up causing as many problems as they fix. I was nervous about my concrete work, and hugely relieved that the results were good.

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  6. Your house and outside look amazing. Your car is too cute too!

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    1. Thank you! I still need some landscaping, then I can feel the outside is complete! :)

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