Old Man + Misdemeanor + 80s Music = New Driveway in Progress

We have an older gent in our employ this week. Roy George, 84, is a retired sod farmer and landscaper who enjoys doing excavation work to keep himself active. (He also unknowingly gets Karma Chameleon stuck in my head.) Mr. George came highly recommended by a friend, and at $10 an hour (!) it was hard to pass up having someone else mess around our front yard and finally carve out the driveway of our dreams.

The thought of an 84-year-old operating a massive piece of heavy equipment on uneven terrain sounds a little unsettling, but we weren't too concerned. This is his area of expertise after all, and the friend who recommended him also happens to be his doctor (our tree-cutting pal Dr. T). We weren't concerned, that is, until this happened:

After Mr. George stopped by for a consultation earlier this week, we found that our beloved new mailbox was the victim of a hit-and-run, and Mr. George was the primary suspect. That elevated the nervousness a bit... but we looked on the bright side and took it as a sign that it really is time to move the driveway since the mailbox was packed up and ready to go. So we gave Mr. George free reign (gulp) over the project.

He's only been at it for a day and a half, but we are excited about his progress and happy to report that there have been no further damages discovered. Roy George is legit. (Although we can hear our mailbox singing, "Do you really want to hurt me?" every time he pulls in.)

I've talked about our driveway numerous times before, but the lowdown is that instead of cutting sideways across the yard, the driveway will now approach the house from the front. Though there's still a lot of leveling to be done, the picture above shows the angle of the new driveway -- pretty much straight on. It will have a nice little circle in front of the house for easy turning, and it will fork off to the right to go into the garage as well. S drew this hilarious little picture on a Post-It to show me the plan:

So essentially we are relying on S's scrawly sketch and a very old man's bulldozing skills to make our curb appeal dreams come true. The house cannot possibly look any worse from the front at this point, so I'm surprisingly optimistic about the outcome.

We really have our work cut out for us, don't we? Oh house... loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams.