Can you see what was added here?
Ok. I'll tell you. We have gutters and garage lights!!! We painted the garage door until my friend Tom comes back from vacation and can get us a new one.
Between the last page and this page, we had not less than three torential rains that really screwed up everything. The water ran off the roof and pushed all the dirt from the gardens to the walkways and driveways.
We are not finished yet, although we could call it a year and rest on this alone. We have the shutters up on all the windows except for the front of the house because we had to reorder the shutters on one front window. The ones that came in were not wide enough. I also have plans for landscaping the yard and I have to decorate the porch (so far Bob doesn't really like the bench that I like, but he will come around to loving it).
We have tried to figure out what to do about the asphalt driveway. Since they delivered the brick, it sags where the bricks were laid. That, and the driveway was never as wide as it should be. When you step from the car on the edge sides of the drive, you almost always have to step off into grass. We have been told that concrete doesn't do well in this part of the Country, but I look down and see on this house a concrete walkway, porch and garage that seem to have been just fine for about 15 years.
One of our next plans is to look into fixing or replacing the driveway. Concrete may crack, but it is better than asphalt and if done correctly should last 30 years with minimal maintenance. I (Cyndy) work for a company that works with people in the building trade, so I got the name of a great guy that came and talked to us. First, he would personally be involved with the whole job. He recommends extra stress cracks (more than any of our neighbors would have) and he has told us to calk in those cracks for more moisture protection. He also recommends that we seal the concrete every 5 years for more protection
The brick paver salesmen brag about how their brick driveways are guaranteed for life and concrete isn't,
but my concrete guy offers two warranties on his work!
He guarantees against fire and theft!
If we decide to pave the porch and walkway, we will have to get the driveway done first.. so we have a few decisions to make. This could take awhile!
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Page established March 18, 2004
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