Our total house remodel project is once again going outdoors this Spring to our driveway.
When we moved into our home several years ago, we had a gravel driveway that was sparsely covered. We invested in a truckload of gravel and hand-spread it out over the course of several days with wheel barrow, shovels, and rakes.
We had plenty of gravel, but many void spaces between the rocks that left us with a bumpy, rough driving surface. Even with shoes on, it hurt our feet to walk on the driveway. Also, it was nearly impossible to shovel in the winter.
Over the next year, that gravel settled but the void spaces remained and became the new home of acorns, leaves, and other debris. Below is the only picture I could find of our beloved gravel.
Last year, we decided to fill the void spaces with 3 tons of crushed limestone -another investment. Again, we spread it out by hand over the course of a couple days. It actually looked pretty nice – at first – almost like a smooth, paved surface. Once we started driving on it, the limestone did fill in the voids but it also filled in the voids of our tires, shoes, our dogs’ feet, and more.
The limestone that is not driven on by a car is left in a powdery form piled up on the edges of our driveway as you can see in the photo below, the dust is constantly on the wooden retaining walls..
The crushed limestone from an entire year ago is still tracked onto our front porch, into our cars, and into our house every single day. We have limestone throughout our house even though we take our shoes off at the door. It is a mess that I must clean every single day. It is a continuous nightmare every season of the year.
Now that it has settled over the past year, the parts of the driveway that sees all the action is back to just gravel while the borders are still powder form. It’s not getting any better and I won’t let my husband ‘try’ anything else.
Last year, we installed interlocking deck tile from Sam’s Club on our existing wood porch.
We also installed a new front door and garage door, so we are really focusing on the exterior entrance to our home.
The problem of our driveway continues to the entrances of our home.
You can see below that there is a brick entrance that seems sunken over time in front of our garage door, which makes it nearly impossible to even drive up and into our garage with our cars. We have the existing border from the previous wooden porch still between the new deck and driveway. Just look at it, it is a mess – and not welcoming in any way.
This Summer, we are considering investing in a concrete driveway. It will be the biggest home remodel project of the season with lasting benefits. Not only will it cut down on the dust the driveway creates and the little limestones that get tracked into our house, but a concrete driveway is going to add curb appeal to our home.
I can already picture how finished our home will look with a professionally installed concrete driveway. It will increase the value of our home if we ever decide to sell but the value it will give to us as homeowners will be immeasurable! I imagine that a concrete driveway will require little maintenance. We won’t be spending days every year trying to fix and maintain the crappy drive up anymore! It’s going to be welcoming to our guests, and that’s important to us.
A concrete driveway will finally give my kids a surface to jump rope, ride their scooters, play basketball, and make chalk drawings. I’ve felt bad Not having one for the kids..
I am ready to say goodbye to our unsightly gravel driveway that has been one nightmare after another. I want to find a trusted contractor that has a A rating with the BBB, someone that has experience and that I can trust.
