Making way for Mother Nature

The first objective in our outside renovation project was to make sure that we still had a driveway after another year of rain. We put in a fairly extensive drainage system that captured run-off from the front lawn (which can be significant); the west side of the house downspout drain and the east side of the house downspout drain. We previously had a lot of water running across a mostly gravel driveway.

The concrete pad that was in place was over 40 years old and showing its age. It was also too narrow for us to comfortably park our two vehicles on. We tore it out completely and replaced with a gravel pad about 10 feet wider than the previous pad. This concrete removal also allows us to add some landscaping features to around this area.

We added about 30 yards of dirt to build up the pad area. We regraveled the entire driveway with a large gravel to set a good basis for when we can afford to asphalt the space (maybe next year). Now it will take some time and some rain to get it to all settle in.

The secondary project was the removal of the basketball court to make way for our new vegetable/herb/flower garden. Kris and I both have never really liked the B-Ball court. Olivia liked playing on it sometimes, but she will enjoy the garden just as much. We had a truckload of topsoil delivered that will provide the counterpart the the large number of leaves we are going to mulch in the space over the fall leaf collection. A little black plastic and voila! 1000 square feet of composted space.

We are planning on setting the plastic and initial leaves this weekend. There is also some general cleaning up to do.