Extreme Driveway Makeover

Our driveway is just all wrong. It points in a completely wrong and funny direction, so that the back left side of the house is all you see when you pull in--providing negative amounts of curb appeal. Also it is carved into a ditch, with high banks on each side and poor drainage, and cuts the yard in half. We don't do anything by halves, so we've decided to bulldoze the yard and redirect the driveway for optimal arrival, departure and yard enjoyment.

Step 1 was to cut down several overgrown swamp maples and two cedars that were prime candidates for falling on the house during a future storm. The thought of cutting down any tree makes me sad, but I'm appeased in knowing that the good stuff will be used by a carpenter friend and we plan to do lots of planting in the future.

Step 2 is to get rid of the branches and dense scrubby brush. This requires calling in S's dad to gather it up with his bobcat and then having a bonfire!!! Which is what we did on Friday night. The hardworking men can be seen basking in its glory and getting warm after several days of bone-soaking rain.

Don't worry, the fire was not as close to the house as it looks.

Bonfires bring back so many memories... even not-so-distant memories from the summer after we graduated from college. My parents and my aunt and uncle went through a bit of a bonfire revival phase while S and I were dating, so we all roasted many a hot dog together in the Pennsylvania moonlight that summer. S even learned to like sauerkraut during one of those nights, just one of the many enrichments I've brought into his life. (Now, if I could only get him to try a red beet pickled egg... my favorite PA Dutch delicacy.)

Veering back onto the driveway topic, Step 3 will be getting a big bulldozer in here, leveling everything out and carving a new driveway that will make the most sense both practically and aesthetically. The rest of the steps, including surfacing the new driveway, planting grass, landscaping, etc. are too overwhelming to my brain to list here, so I will cover those projects someday, many moons from now, when we get around to them.

However, even when it's all done, that doesn't mean their won't be more bonfires. There WILL be more bonfires! And you'll be invited -- especially if you bring your mountain pie irons, because we don't have any.