The new sidewalk vision includes a sweeping curve going out to the street next to our mailbox, and resurfacing our stoop with brick. Houses in our neighborhood all have entrances to their front doors via the driveways. I would love to have a more welcoming entry. However, for now we just want to get the sidewalk between our driveway and front door replaced.
As my husband started digging up the existing sidewalk, he discovered that it was not of a uniform thickness in the standard 3-4 inches thick. Instead the builders had simply poured concrete to fill in the area, making some of the concrete depth as much as 12 inches thick. It was very difficult to break up that thickness and carry it away piece by piece.
Then my husband dug a ditch and laid much needed drainage pipe the length of the sidewalk and down the edge of the driveway to the street.
Next a new concrete step was added to our front steps. This entailed building a wooden form and filling it in with wire reinforcement before pouring the concrete.
The walkway was then widened and piles of stone put in which had to be raked level. A layer of weed block fabric went down next. Finally it was time to lay the bricks. This is the fun part. Originally my husband had a decorative brick design in mind, but then realized with the eventual curve out to the street, a simple running design was more workable.
Today, hopefully the first stage of our walkway will be finished. We still need to finish laying bricks, putting in edging, and level the surrounding dirt out to the edge.
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| Trying my hand at cutting brick |
It has been a long project, of course winter, family vacations, and life in general have slowed progress. But the end is in sight, we have both learned a lot, and we are happy with the results.
Happy Sewing♥
This is awesome, Kym!! That does look like a lot of hard work, but it will be so worth it in the end. I'm so excited for you!!
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