The gravel driveway is compacting down nicely…and the dirt front yard is coming along as well.
I’m finally coming around to loving the gravel driveway. It was a huge compromise and not my “dream” choice but considering the low cost and the high functionality, I’m leaning on the side of awesome.
Have you ever compromised on a project and been pleasantly surprised?
Figured out today that we are stupid, like really stupid.
I blame it on inexperience, but logically if your going to create a gridded cement paver patio it would be wise to level the area, put down sand and install the pavers first.
Maybe it’s just project fatigue. We also drove to Home Depot in my little Scion to pick up 10′ lengths of wood and 30 super heavy cinder blocks. Once we loaded up the cart we realized we had to drive back home and get The Boys truck.
We Are Idiots.
The whole plan was to create a 18 x 18′ gridded cement paver patio around the fire pit with gravel as a filler. It would have been smarter to install those f*cking pavers first but somehow we got gravel happy and thought we needed to level out the area with gravel. Dumb move.
I installed the first row of stepping stones behind the garage today and it required digging out each individual spot, leveling and finessing each stone in a rocky pit of hell, and cursing our own ineptness.
I do think it turned out rad considering the disgusting hamster bedding dog run of death that was there before.
We chose 18 x 18″ cement stepping stones that cost about $50 total.
Now we have to decide what to do:
- Leave it all gravel.
- Install 18 x 18″ pavers at $5 a piece.
- Install 12 x 12″ pavers at $1 a piece.
I’m leaning towards the 12 x 12″ pavers, even though initially I was super opposed to them (I had lofty dreams of like 30 x 30″ pavers till I found out how much they are and how fragile). The smaller ones are WAY easier to work with, could be installed closer together and would be about $150 compared to like $350 for the larger size.
We got a refund out of our escrow account after our property taxes were reevaluated and lowered to reflect the actual purchase price of the house (actually a little lower due to the nosedive real estate market) instead of charging us the previous owners purchase price (which they have for a year and was WAY WAY WAY more than we paid). Another good aspect was that our mortgage payment was also lowered and now we are paying less for the house than we’ve ever paid in rent. So – good news overall.
The focus for using this little boon of cash has fallen on fixing up our crappy/weedy dirt driveway. Which is seriously Ghetto.
Here is a little layout map – and yes, our driveway is huge.
Here are some inspiration pictures I’ve been looking at to figure out what to do with the beast of a driveway.
The Boy wants the whole driveway done in 1″ gravel. I want rectangular cement slabs with gravel divisions.
Like everything, it’s all going to come down to those DOLLARS. We definitely don’t want to overspend as this town is awful and going overboard probably won’t ever pay off.
If we go all gravel, we could totally DIY the driveway. If there are cement slabs, we will need pro assistance. We could always install those big cement pavers to kind of fake the look, and I know cement will cost way more than we should spend (We actually got a quote for $15,000 to do what I want to the whole driveway. WTF – we got other more reasonable quotes but that one just seemed insane).
It’s going to cost :
-$872.50 (including tax and delivery) for all the gravel.
-$250 for a 24 hour tractor rental to level and grade the dirt.
Thats $1,122.50 to DIY a full on gravel driveway.
So, my question for all you fabulous DIYer’s is this – what’s a good, cheap driveway solution? Have any of you gorgeous, charming, and witty readers put a driveway in and what are your do’s and don’ts?
