As we talked about in our publish about making a much bigger yard pool space, we’ve additionally made some large adjustments out entrance. Particularly, we now have a legit entrance walkway and driveway! Escape the champagne! Launch the doves! Rewatch the #Scandoval episode of Vanderpump Guidelines (or no matter else folks like Sherry do to have fun). I do know this may increasingly appear unworthy of celebration – a driveway? cool story, bro – however while you reside with out one for THREE YEARS, it seems like a serious win.

Why We Wanted Parking & Pathways

I do know most homes include a spot to park your automotive and a few form of path to the entrance door. Each different home we’ve lived in actually did. Some even had garages! However this specific home had no such factor. The whole property, other than the home, was simply pine straw, filth, and leaves.

This can be a screenshot from a video we made the day we first noticed this home. In it, you possibly can see our rental automotive simply kinda pulled randomly onto the pine straw. That is on the opposite facet of our home, taken from what’s now our kitchen porch.

The state of affairs didn’t get a lot better once we lastly moved in. Our storage POD had been delivered into that clearing proven above (you possibly can see it under on the suitable) so I keep in mind calling our contractor on our approach right down to Florida and asking “um, the place will we put our automotive?” Bear in mind, resulting from Covid, we didn’t lay eyes on this home any time between placing within the provide in on February third of 2020 and truly shifting down in Could. He principally stated “simply discover a spot within the pine straw,” so we did (you possibly can see our automotive, under left).

The image under (from 2021) provides you a more in-depth image of what grew to become our major “driveway” for a very long time. Simply an open space of pine straw. You can too see that we created some pathways round the home utilizing these cheap concrete pavers. We didn’t dig them in or something – simply plopped them down as a makeshift technique to get round a bit extra simply. Typically a paver would slide misplaced or turn into rickety over time, so we knew finally we’d do one thing extra everlasting.

None of those options had been inherently unhealthy, we simply knew finally we’d like one thing that functioned (and seemed) a bit higher for the lengthy haul.

Finally (as in, later in 2021) we created a gravel parking spot on the OTHER facet of our home – virtually precisely the place that POD (and our rental automotive) had as soon as been. We had simply renovated our lined facet porch by including a new door to our kitchen. This door has turn into our household’s most important entry, principally due to its comfort to this parking spot proper off the kitchen (it makes carrying groceries in rather a lot simpler – and we even have shoe storage in a cupboard on that porch now). You’ll be able to learn extra about why we love the kitchen porch right here. We’d left an indentation in our fence for exactly this objective (and to keep away from the timber) so we simply purchased and unfold about 15 luggage of gravel to make our driveway “official.”

Including A Gravel Driveway

After we undertook our greater yard challenge, a part of the objective was to lastly create one other correct parking spot for 2 further automobiles. We took this under consideration once we moved the fence AND when the concrete guys had been right here. As a part of that job, we had them pour a low retaining wall to formally designate a driveway space. We thought it will properly outline the parking house whereas corraling the gravel we deliberate to place there. Sidenote: can you notice the sunbathing lizard?

There are many the reason why we opted to do a gravel driveway versus different supplies like concrete, asphalt, or stone pavers (all of which we additionally thought of – however rock received). Just a few of the elements had been value, slope, runoff, the overall “vibe,” and many others. Lots of our neighbors have gravel driveways too, so it suits effectively in our beachy relaxed neighborhood (good day, we’ve filth roads!). We even have guidelines about how porous (aka: drainage-friendly) sure areas of our tons need to be, and gravel suits the invoice for this spot of our yard. We selected a stone referred to as Bahama Rock as a result of it’s a heat sandy white shade. We went to a neighborhood landscaping firm to select it out and acquired a supply the very subsequent day (it was round $500 for this hulking pile of stone).

Spreading the gravel was no joke, however we enlisted the assistance of a neighbor and the three of us had been capable of knock it out inside a few hours. We simply used shovels to toss piles into numerous sections, then metallic rakes to unfold and stage it. It shifted below our ft and tires a bit the primary few days, however after a few weeks and a few good rains, it now feels good and agency.

The driveway seems to be a bit small from the angle above, however the view from the road reveals its dimension higher. It’s 18′ extensive, which is the usual width for 2 automobiles. It’s additionally – fortunate for us – precisely what we might match between the neighbor’s fence and that small tree.

For reference, right here’s an analogous angle from 2021 (observe the tire marks within the pine straw from the place my automotive often was, since we had but so as to add the kitchen porch). Whereas there’s part of me that misses the “naturalness” of this view earlier than, it was a lot much less practical for us and our friends. Plus, it seemed FAR much less charming with a car parked there. Word: we moved the fence in entrance of that stunning massive tree so we might get pleasure from it from the pool and double the dimensions of the pool space – that’s why you see it behind the fence above and in entrance of the fence within the photograph under.

Our Poured Concrete Entrance Path

And as we confirmed in our publish concerning the greater yard, we additionally had a correct walkway poured to attach the brand new driveway to our entrance porch. Visitors gotta have a spot to park their automobiles AND a technique to stroll to and from them. We opted for giant poured-in-place stepping stones (virtually like the larger extra everlasting model of the short-term paver walkways we’d used for thus lengthy). You’ll be able to learn extra about them on this publish (which reveals how concrete paths and retaining partitions accomplished our greater pool space.

Right here’s a earlier than photograph we shared in the final publish, which reveals what the yard seemed like with our short-term pavers. Effectively, sorta. I took this image as our new fence was being rebuilt, so a bunch of stuff is moved misplaced already, however you get the concept.

Now right here’s an after that reveals the brand new pathway, parking spot, and our good friend’s Jeep making the most of the far more formally trying parking space.

Typically we really feel a bit foolish for the way blissful this new driveway & walkway state of affairs makes us. It’s laborious to articulate how “in limbo” the skin of our home has felt for the final three years right here, and the way staple items like having a correct parking place and a pleasant extensive and secure strolling path make it really feel like a reputable house.

Take this earlier than & after, for instance. Once more, the placeholder-but-we-had-them-for-3-years pavers did the job, however they seemed and felt fairly short-term over time. And now these large poured concrete slabs look official and everlasting.

If we return to that earlier than photograph I shared earlier: right here’s the entrance once we first laid eyes on this home in February 2020 (you possibly can see the entire exterior earlier than photographs right here).

And this was a number of months after we moved in, as seen in this publish from October 2020 (the debut of the small paver pathways). Word: our home quantity has been altered for privateness under, and faraway from the photograph after it 😉

And right here we are actually!

I do know some could ask concerning the resolution to not put pavers all the way in which throughout the entrance steps (doing 3 sections as an alternative of two). We did this for a few causes. Functionally, 1 row is greater than extensive sufficient to stroll on (every slab is 48″ extensive). But in addition visually, we thought doing 2 leaned into a few of the inherent asymmetries of our home. Creating this visible weight on the BOTTOM LEFT of the porch steps helped stability out the visible weight of the deck on the UPPER RIGHT.

You’ll be able to actually see what we imply on this photograph under, which is how most individuals method our home from the road. The L-shaped higher deck to the suitable of the door and the L-shaped walkway to the left of the entrance porch feels balanced and intentional.

Additionally if we had completed concrete all the way in which throughout the entrance, we thought it will make that space look extra like a patio than a pathway (it will be about 13′ extensive by 10′ deep!).

A New Path Off The Kitchen Porch

We additionally had a few of these large poured concrete pavers added to our facet yard too, which lead from our parking house to the kitchen porch (we had additionally been utilizing these small sq. paver stones as a brief walkway earlier than).

It’s very nice to have these a lot bigger and sturdier everlasting slabs which were poured in place.

That is a kind of locations the place the bizarre angles and asymmetries of our home had been difficult to work round – the 2 units of steps aren’t parallel to one another, and just one is perpendicular to the fence gate. However we embraced it and created an asymmetrical path that connects all the suitable locations.

It’s solely a complete of 4 slabs, all of which you’ll be able to see under. Three are on the identical stage and join the kitchen porch to the gate (which ends up in that single-car parking spot we use day by day). The 4th slab is one step decrease to hook up with our bed room stairs. Mainly, we’ve positioned these extra everlasting pathways wherever we want them however didn’t add something further, which permits this space to stay largely pure trying. Now if solely a few of our crops would develop again quicker after December’s large freeze!

Okay, that wraps up a view of all the brand new pathways and concrete curbs and issues that we added. In case you haven’t seen our final publish all about our new bigger pool space (which has a few of our favourite makes use of of concrete) click on right here for all of these photographs and particulars.

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