Half a Driveway

Shane called City Hall to see if we needed a permit to redo our driveway. The City Clerk thought so, and gave Shane the phone number for the guy who could tell him yes or no for sure.

Shane: Hey Bob, I’m tearing out my driveway and putting in a new one.

Bob: Good for you.

Shane: Do I need a permit?

Bob: Nope.

Shane: Good.

One thing after another went wrong while trying to redo our driveway. After one pass with the concrete saw, the starter broke. Shane spent some time trying to fix it, and then took it back to the store. They took forever to fix it, but he finally made it back and finished cutting.

Then the jack hammering began. After four blisters and a lot of frustration, Shane had a big enough chunk tore out. We were waiting for a friend’s trailer so we could get a skid steer, but it was taking a long time, so we had the rental company deliver the Bobcat. Shane borrowed a truck and dump trailer from a friend, and loaded as much concrete as he could. He took off to dump it and came back an hour later in our Rav4. Why? Because a tire blew on the trailer.

Sigh.

He had planned on spending most of the evening loading and dumping the concrete.

Early the next morning he went to help fix the tire on the trailer. Good ol’ Levi came to the rescue over the next two days. He drove that Bobcat like a beast!

Proof: 

They got the concrete torn up and dumped, then brought in a couple loads of gravel, rented a tamping thing…I don’t know what it’s called, but here they are getting it done!

They set up the forms and were ready for the cement truck the next morning. Well…mostly ready. There was one tool he needed – the float tool thinger – and he couldn’t find one anywhere! Finally the Ace Hardware in Estherville had one, so he had to delay the cement truck by 30 minutes while he went to pick it up.

Dan-o and his three boys showed up to help with the pouring.

 Little Sam (on the far left) didn’t get to help much. But he did manage to step in the wet cement twice!

My contribution was taking pictures. And I got to fix the corner the first time Sam stepped in it 🙂

Here it is in all it’s glory. I finally got to drive on it yesterday, after a week of no driveway!

I should also mention that the first two days they were working on the driveway, it was at least 90 degrees out with high humidity. Shane lost 4 pounds.

I was painting during most of this. The first day I painted the upstairs stairwell and hallway. The day they poured the concrete I painted the downstairs stairwell and one living room wall. Since then I’ve painted the south dining room/kitchen wall and the east living room wall with the windows. The east wall has the vaulted ceilings, so I had to climb the ladder. It was treacherous, but I was really brave and got it done all by myself! 🙂 It’s so hard to take pictures of the living room because of the windows. It’s so bright and the pictures come out really dark.

Here’s Shane helping with some ladder work after they poured the driveway. He assured me this is the best way to stand on a ladder. I don’t believe him.

Notice that super ugly brass light fixture?! Well it is GONE now! Finally!! Shane bought a new one while he was in Des Moines yesterday. It’s a little small though, so we’ll take it back and get a larger one. But anything is better than that old ugly one!

Norah is sitting next to me while I write, and she keeps pointing at the screen and saying “Daddy!” He’s on his way back from San Jose right now, lucky dog.

I have two kitchen walls and the two shorter walls in the living room left to paint. They all have the vaulted ceiling though, so I’ll get to test out my ladder skills some more.

We should be able to pour the other half of the driveway tomorrow! Shane said I can help this time 🙂 He wants to rake and have Levi and I level it with the board. Mom’s going to come watch Norah, so maybe I’ll even get in a few pictures!