Tag Archives: projects

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Kiss my grass…

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Now that the driveway replacement is complete, it’s time to battle the ditch from Hell.

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This feature has been the bane of my husband’s existence ever since we moved to this house 21 years ago.

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It runs the full length of our property on both sides of the driveway and was dug (illegally as it turns out) by the previous owner.

Our neighbors on the left don’t have a ditch.

Our neighbors on the right don’t have a ditch.

The farm across the street doesn’t have a ditch… but we have a ditch that over the years has been caving in, filling up with gravel and broken road tar and becoming a nightmare to mow, weed whack and kept clean.

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My husband had the grass growing all the way to the road until the town in their infinite wisdom decided to scrape the sides down to gravel last year.

This increased the caving in by making it more unstable to snow plows and mail trucks that ride on top.

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Needless to say we’d had enough of maintaining said ditch and asked the driveway company what it would cost to lay perforated pipe the entire length and cover it with dirt we could seed and mow a flat lawn all the way to the road.

We were told nothing could be done until we had a signed permit. So we went to the town… who told us to go to Maine public works.

So we went to Maine public works… who told us to go the state DOT.

So we went to the state DOT… who told us to go to the town.

After a week and a half of this insanity I wanted to repeatedly stab myself with a fork… but my husband figured marching up to the capitol and finding the head man would be more productive. So that’s what he did. He found the guy who’s in charge of every single road in the state. He explained the situation and arranged for this overworked fellow to visit our property in order to give permission for us to fill in our ditch.

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Head guy came, head guy looked, head guy listened, and said he had to talk to legal.

A week later head guy called with a denial.

To which we wanted to say…

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The lame excuse he gave was this…. if he granted permission for us to fill in the ditch, who’s to say the next owner wouldn’t want up dig it out again.

What the …. what?

Who cares!

To pacify my irate husband, he agreed to visit us again with a proposal that the state could come and dig out the ditch, build up the sides and make it more stable… at their cost. Which sounds good in theory but in reality would just put us back to where we were 21 years ago with a steeper ditch that’s harder to keep clean. And I hate to say it, but we aren’t getting any younger.

Head guy is coming back next week.

I’ll keep you posted.

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Getting on board.

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Now that the driveway renewal project is complete it’s time to turn our attention to other areas of Casa River that need help…. starting with our back deck.

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Granted it doesn’t look bad from far away.

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And the husband did replace the old wooden railings with these snazzy new metal ones 3 years ago…

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But on closer inspection you can see it’s time for a change.

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This viewing hole was not planned… just the result of dry rotted wood.

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And seeing that it was a direct result of staining this old deck that blew my knee out in 2020? I’m done with old wood.

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If you look closely you can tell this deck is actually composed of two different sized boards. On the left, the original wide planking. On the right, the already weathered, thinner cedar deck boards my husband hauled home from a yard sale because – wait for it – they were free.

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The size difference has driven me crazy for years, but since we’re if it ain’t broke don’t fix it New Englanders … it’s only now that our feet are in danger of breaking through that the whole deck will be replaced.

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With oh crap this stuff is expensive TimberTech composite boards. At $96 per I’m not looking forward to the bill, but if I don’t want to break the leg of my already damaged knee… it has to be done.

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So this is what $20,000 looks like…. otherwise known as before and after.

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Before.

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One long, dirty, noisy, and inconvenient process later….

After.

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Pardon the little puddle. It’s been raining every day for a freakin’ month.

Before.

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After.

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Before.

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After.

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Before.

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After.

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It’s an amazing difference and I can’t wait to drive on it.

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Since we had the crew replace the culvert as well, sod or grass seed will be in our future.

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But the husband is currently battling with the state DOT to fill in the entire 300 feet of ditch which has been a nightmare since we moved in 20 years ago and doesn’t want to start fixing the lawn until he has a definitive answer.

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The old driveway was a straight shot to the road but now we have a nice open curved entry and no immediate ditch to worry about driving into on dark nights.

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We are pleased.

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The driveway replacement finale.

34 Comments

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The back half of the driveway was done and paving moved to the front.

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Which means the big machine was put into play. If you’ve never seen the process, it really is kind of fascinating.

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Before long they were at the road end.

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And the wheelbarrow brigade was back in action.

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Fill, dump, spread.

Repeat.

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When they’d made us a nice entrance…

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The final smoothing commenced.

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A little more on the edges…

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And they were stringing the don’t drive on me for a week! sign.

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Which surprised me because we were originally told to let it set for 3.

Either way, it looks good.

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And a damn sight better than it did.

Before and after pics to come.

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And we’re paving….

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The day we’d been waiting for finally arrived .

A temporary mailbox had been installed…

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The blockade was removed….

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And paving commenced.

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The crew pulled in at 7:30am with the big machine but a lot had to happen before they fired up that baby.

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Spray painting for instance.

But when the dump truck with the hot tar arrived, things really kicked into high gear.

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The bump out parking area was the first spot to be paved.

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And I have to say … those laborers I photographed sitting down playing with their phones really earned their pay this day.

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Time is of the essence when the tar is hot and they were positively trotting while dumping wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full of the heavy stuff into place.

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It’s a whole lotta work.

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In front of the garage by the kitchen porch was next.

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And I’m sure the crew thought the lady who lives here was nuts for running from window to window to take pictures of the progress.

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A little portable packing and smoothing later, that section was done.

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Driveway replacement inconveniences.

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As we wait for the smoothed dirt to dry on the newly torn up and backfilled driveway, a word about the inconveniences of this repair/replace project.

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Ours cars now have to sit outside in the elements for the week it’s taking the crew to do the job and probably for 2-3 weeks after that. Forget the fact that Ethel, my Subaru, is a garage virgin and has never spent a night outside…. not being able to use the driveway means the only place we can pull into our property is way out here.

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Which makes walking to your car in the rain and hauling groceries back to the house a right royal pain in the *ss.

And since we contracted to have the culvert replaced?

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Our mailbox had to go as well.

Trying to predict what time the postman will drive by so I can run out there to meet him is getting old fast.

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Driveway repair part nine…. finishing touches to dirt and the husband’s blockade.

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The rough work on the driveway repair was coming to a close.

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Small loads of the top layer of dirt were finessed.

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With numerous wheelbarrow trips.

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Though not everyone was hard at work.

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Lots of dumping. Lots of spreading by hand.

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And then the crew whipped out a big power saw and started cutting away part of the road.

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I didn’t realize they were allowed to do that, but clearly they are.

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And when I say cut, I mean rip up big chunks as well.

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Nest step? Smooth and pack the dirt.

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And at the end of the day we were left with this.

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Which we were told was a little too wet to pave so it would have to sit for a few days to dry.

We were also told not to drive on it. And since a lot of people use our driveway to turn around?

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The husband built a blockade.

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Driveway repair part seven… the smoothing battle.

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Work continues on the driveway.

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Dirt and gravel are brought in, dumped, spread …

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And smoothed.

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At times it looks like some weird sort of race.

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Bigger boys, bigger toys.

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Was my husband out there chatting during the process?

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I think you know the answer to that.

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It’s a good thing I don’t like to nap during the day.

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Because when they do the section in front of the garage, they’re literally right on the kitchen porch doorstep.

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Driveway repair part six… the culvert.

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When the paving crew reached the end of the driveway tear down, it was time to remove the rusty old culvert.

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How rusty was it you ask?

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Rusty enough that it literally fell apart in their hands. Mind you, this was the same culvert the state deemed perfectly serviceable last year when a road improvement project skipped by our property with nary a glance.

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In the middle of the removal process?

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Someone had to go out and chat.

Please take note it wasn’t me.

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Old rusted culvert out, new plastic culvert that should last for 50+ years in.

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And since my husband was supervising?

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He had them lay and cover the full 40 feet instead of the 25 originally planned as not to waste the extra length he’d paid for.

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Naturally, this required more chatting.

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