Over the past month or so, Joe and his dad have been concreting the driveway. When we moved in, it was mostly overgrown bushes and a small broken fence that introduced a concrete footpath to the front door.
Well, we (read: Joe) have ripped out all the bushes, turned over all the soil, and prepared the area to become a driveway. We have 2 cars so it always made sense that this would become a home for them. Not to mention that when I park on the road, the birds in the huge tree above the house leave me daily presents – open your bowels elsewhere will you!?
With Winter fast approaching, and not wanting to park on muddy soil, Joe and his dad have worked long and hard to get the driveway concreted. They first dug down into the soil to make way for materials – It later emerged that this was too deep, but you live and learn!
They added foundations for the concrete (I think Joe actually used some old golf clubs in there somewhere to reinforce the concrete. Very creative dear!)
Gravel was then added for drainage. This was the original plan for the driveway, but because of the huge tree, it would be near impossible to sweep up Autumn leaves without making a jolly good mess. So, it’s sloped concrete instead. All around the back garden is now about a foot high with soil thanks to the digging down. It’s like we’ve got loads of mini ramps around the side!
Here are the boys evening out the final batch of concrete.
The gates that were given to us (for free woohoo!) have now been added and all the fences are now blue. Here’s a panoramic shot of the front garden! 
Starting to look better isn’t it?
…And we also put our hand print in the final lot of concrete with the date, just for giggles.
I didn’t get to take as many sneaky pictures for this project because Joe and his dad did so much before I would get home from work!
It took a lot of patience and time, because every time they wanted to lay some concrete, the skies would open and just heave it down – typical British ‘summer!’ The tree offered some protection and they eventually got it done. They’ve really done a great job.
