The Latest Project at the Homestead -- A Brand New... Driveway!

So it's not nearly as exciting as the announcer on the Price is Right saying 'A Brand New Car' but we desperately needed a new driveway. The old driveway was original to the house (50+ years) and hadn't been sealed in forever so it was sinking and crumbling and growing things and sending all the rainwater from the street straight down our sidewalk to the house's foundation.


Bass spent hours researching contractors and getting bids and figuring out what would need to be in place for this to happen. He finally found a driveway/paving company to do the driveway and got in touch with a concrete contractor (a great guy from our church) to do the sidewalk.

The sidewalk went in first, they fixed the curve to make it more natural as well as widened the sidewalk. It's about 8" higher than the previous one (also to help keep the rainwater away from the house.) They also ran some conduit underneath for the electric cable that goes from the house to the outdoor lamp post.

Bass edged all of the beds for me this spring too.

After the sidewalk was in, the driveway guys removed the old driveway and dug it down a bit. Then they added a thick base coat and finished with a super thick top coat. They also graded it so that it slopes slightly away from the house towards the side yard.

We changed the shape of the garden at the corner of the garage, pulling it way back because it made parking awkward.

Mulch stays in the garden bed now because the driveway was raised up.

Once the construction stuff was done,  Bass got to work adding top soil and seeding the lawn around the sidewalk, front garden, and down the side yard by the driveway.

The new grass is the non-weedy stuff. :)

We were also blessed by my folks who were cleaning out their basement and found a brand-new outdoor light pole. We used a gift card (from Bass's folks) to buy a lantern style outdoor light. So thanks to our parents, we now have a super-bright, dusk to dawn light fixture. Our street is pretty dark and our porch lights a little far from the driveway so I'm liking the security of our new light.
Here's the before and after of the outdoor light.

I'm not quite sure what happened here but suffice it to say, the light didn't work.

And the 'after'. Look at all the new grass along the driveway too. So pretty!

And now the best part, the official before and after!
Before:

After:

 

Well, the best part is actually not worrying if we'll get water in the basement every time it rains! :)