My driveway project, part 2

Ok, so I thought I'd share a few final pictures from the driveway project to complete the story. In the photo below, you see the final solution for the under-the-sidewalk drain. I connected the downspout to the PVC drainpipe with the black flexible tubing. I tried it out with a garden hose to make sure the water was flowing properly - looks good so far.

In fact, I was having so much fun with the pop-ups, that I decided to put one in for the downspout near the front step. This one was much easier because I only had to bury the flexible tubing a few inches under the dirt in the rocks. Plus this one did not need to go under the walkway. I just wanted to get the water away from the sidewalk!

Mission accomplished! Here's a view of the second pop-up looking from the front step out towards the yard. You can see the round, green pop-up in the rocks, near the edging, away from the sidewalk! I tested this one with a hose and viola! it popped up!

Below is a picture of the A-1 water shutoff cover. Its "cemented" right into the concrete and the actual water shutoff sleeve sits underneath it, not touching the concrete, so there's no chance of it affecting the driveway.

Here's a shot of the dry-cut reliefs - they are very clean & symmetrical and should provide sufficient relief to the concrete to prevent any wayward cracks.
And finally, here's a picture of the finished project, less some backfill & seeding along the edges I still need to do, but I'll leave that for another day!

Thanks for reading!

George rides the PowerWing on the new driveway

He gives the new driveway a "thumbs up" as he wriggles the PowerWing around with ease!

My driveway project

My driveway project officially started on June 30th with me breaking the sidewalk so I could trench and install an under-the-sidewalk drain for the gutter with a "pop-up" end cap. Since that part of the sidewalk was already cracked, I dug it out a bit and the sledgehammer did the rest!

Next, I had to dig the actual trench: 15 feet long and about a foot and a half deep with a slight slope. Luckily, I did not damage the buried sprinkler piping and I was able to trench underneath the plastic edging.

Then I had to hurry & bury the pipe then next day before the contractor came at about 10am on Wednesday, July 1st! I packed some paver base around the part of the pipe directly under the sidewalk.

While the contractor was doing my driveway, I was busy finishing the drainage solution. At the "elbow" in the photo below, there is really a "T" with one end pointing downward into the river rock (that goes down about 3 feet) and the other end pointing up and capped off with the "pop-up". The "T" allows the pipe to completely drain thus preventing the potential for the pipe to freeze up. Also, on the recommendation of my friend Kip, I decided to build in a threaded access, so I could easily replace the upper half of the pipe in case the pop-up became damaged, say for example due to a wayward aerator or something like that (thanks for the tip Kip!). Although you can't see it in the photo, there really is a threaded connection where the gap is showing.

And here's the end cap installed. Another nice feature of the threaded junction, is you have some adjustability in the height of the pop-up. It's not a lot, but every bit helps sometimes!

Ugh! Here's a photo of the old asphalt driveway - look how it sunk & crumbled - you can see the skid marks from my motorcycle, where I had to get enough speed to make it into the garage, but then had to immediately hit the binders so I didn't put the thing through the back of the garage! Scary!

Here's the crew doing the "tearout" of the old driveway & sidewalk around 1pm Wednesday, July 1st....

And here they are finished (for the day) by 7:45 pm! But we can't walk on it until the next day! (Thursday).
Nice & even with the garage floor - no more "4 wheeling" to get the vehicles into the garage!
They re-did the incredible sinking stoop-step. This time, they drilled re-bars right into the existing step to keep everything together.

We eliminated the 45 degree corners and replaced them with a swooping curve in the sidewalk.
Here's the view from the street.

Unfortunately, I do not have any of the final pictures yet from Thursday's work where they removed the forms, put in the dry-cut reliefs and sealed the sidewalk & driveway because I was busy tring to finish up some more of my own projects. We can now walk, ride bikes, skateboards, scooters, powerwings, ripsticks and so forth, but we cannot drive on it for 7-10 days. I plan on holding out for the full 10 days which is on or about Saturday, July 11th. Well, that's it for now - I'll try & get a few pix of the completed project soon. Blog to you later!

Mary & the kids meet Zoey!

Today, Mary & the kids traveled to East Bethel, MN to meet their new puppy, Zoey. She is about 6 weeks old in these pictures. They were very excited and will be picking her up to bring her to my home and forever change my life (again) for the next 15 years (ugh!). Anyway, the pictures are pretty darn cute - if I may say so and maintain my dog grinch-ness.

Below is a picture of Zoey, on the left and her sister (we don't know her name yet) who our neighbors adopted.

George & Zoey:

Nicole & Zoey

Zoey, close up - notice her "Mohawk" - she got her head wet while drinking water.

She's a Genius! (and definitely blond).

Mary going crazy over her new dawg!!!!!

Zoey's dad - Chesney

Zoey's mom - Nikes

Well, there you have it! Fifteen days and counting until we have another mouth to feed, another butt to wipe (so to speak) and a ball of fur to love - because you know that darn thing will love me (John) the most. We'll keep you updated on the progress!