Turning a Negative Into a....Driveway?

When Paul and I were negotiating the purchase of 1148 Kirkland, we noticed that the property line noted on the paperwork fell on a tiny sliver of our 70 year old driveway.

Although our realtor went above and beyond--discussing this with the listing agent and homeowner, who also owned the home next door--in the end, three years later it came back to bite us in the butt.

Mortgage companies no longer require a survey of the lot in order to secure a loan, but if you're looking to purchase a home in an older neighborhood it's worth springing for the extra $500 to make sure that your investment is protected.

In the end, forgoing a $500 survey ended up costing us a a lot of hassle. We came home from work one day to find a chain link fence erected on the property line--leaving only 11 feet between the neighbors fence and our house. After taking time off work, meeting with a real estate attorney and in the end having to install a concrete driveway, $500 looks like a pretty good deal.

We've made the most out of the situation and have walked away with a phenomenal driveway. Here's a snapshot of our journey over the last couple of months.

BEFORE:

Nice open driveway. Plenty of room to park cars--with a two car parking area behind the house.

AFTER:

Got a call from a concerned neighbor letting me know a fence was being put up in the middle of our driveway while we were both at work.

JACKHAMMER:

After reviewing all of our options, the best choice for us was to find a silver lining and not pursue litigation. That being said we rented a small jackhammer from Home Depot and got to work. Took us about 5 hours to remove the old concrete walkway and steps.

CONCRETE TIME:

We talked with numerous contractors about the best options for our house and saving our 70 year old Cedar tree. In the end we decided to work with Steve and the fabulous crew at Cement Brothers Concrete. They got started on Monday grading the property, laying gravel and installing the forms.

STEPPING THINGS UP:

One of my favorite parts of this whole project was the idea to re-orient the entrance to the house and add two 9 foot long steps to the entrance. Here are the forms Cement Brothers installed.

VOILA:

Steps are in and smoothed out by hand.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT:

By Noon on Tuesday, Cement Brothers had wrapped up the project. A 70 foot long driveway, new front steps and patio in the backyard. They used a light brushed finish, reinforced fiber concrete and a lot of hard work to make a phenomenal addition to Bungalow Bliss. We are eternally thankful for their craftsmanship and attention to detail.

Next up...installing steps and a stone/paver retaining wall to hold back the 2.5 feet of dirt that was cut out to give us a little bump out in the driveway.

Stay tuned as we plan to tackle that project ourselves.

Cheers!

LB

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Industry Referrals for this project:

Realtor: Marsha Mauney, Zeitlin & Co. Realtors

Attorney: Patrick Witherington, Callahan Witherington, PLLC

Concrete: Steve, Cement Brothers