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Saturday, February 11, 2012

New Driveway for Our Old Victorian



I'm sharing these photos from last September when we regraded and resurfaced the driveway at our Victorian House.  I'm standing in the street out front.  You can see we have a large front yard.

In this photo--to the left of the house is an old lilac, that covers up the view of the two story garage/woodworkingshop/art studio.

I moved my camera position to the bottom of the driveway.  2011 was the second season for new trees. 

 We kept the older leaning tree for the time being as it provides some shade relief for the new trees.  A year or two from now we'll eliminate the leaning tree. 


We are so grateful to our neighbor--a good friend for re-grading the driveway.  He has some impressive equipment.  


After the regrading was finished, he brought in the compactor.  The compactor made the entire house rattle including the old windows.  So much so, several pictures fell off the downstairs bedroom dresser, and the kitchen clock crashed to the floor. 

Then three semi loads of crushed recycled asphalt arrived, and our neighbor used his tractor with grating equipment to spread the crushed asphalt.  The last step was the return of the compactor--vibrating every antique window in the house.  The compactor work took about 30 minutes.

The result is amazing.  (Sorry, I didn't take a finished photo).  The crushed recycled asphalt is a smooth durable surface and is quite nice looking.  Now there is plenty of room in front of the new garage to turn around--making a complete circle and allowing for extra parking.

The crushed asphalt cost about $1500, and our landscape contractor friend's work was a gift to us.  And quite a generous gift it was--for in fact he spent the better part of his week working on our driveway.   He saved us thousands of dollars on this project.  He and hs wife are wonderful people.  There must be a hundred ways to say wonderful and they are all of them!


I scrubbed the front porch, new steps, and concrete, getting ready to paint the steps.  Ooops, I must have been side tracked to do something else; I never got the steps painted. 

I do remember spending an hour now and then some afternoons rocking on the porch last summer--gosh I sure miss those warm days.  When I look at these photos of the lawn I think about the hours and hours of lawn mowing we do.  We have six acres.

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I worked in the art studio this week. 

Finished two coats on the woodwork, and now doing the cut-in painting of the walls. 
What?  Repainting the walls????  Yep.

I decided to change to a gray with brown under tones. 

My other reason for repainting?  Because the previous paint was eggshell finish and wasn't washable. 
When I tried to wipe off the grime of construction it left the wall surface looking burnished. 

The new color is a satin finish and is washable. 

I'm very satisfied with the new wall color and will share photos very soon.





















9 comments:

  1. So glad to see updated pics of your Victorian! Now that is a driveway. I miss sitting on my porch..soon it will be warm enough to do that!

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  2. Your house is beautiful! Wow, what a long driveway you have. Ours is more of a parking area (we have an 1890 cottage). My hubby just graded and reseeded our drive/parking area a couple of weeks ago. We are thinking about using some brick to finish it but we aren't sure yet. I enjoyed visiting your blog and look forward to visiting again soon:).

    Blessings,

    Kim

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  3. Looks like a huge project, but so wonderful when done. You are lucky to have the land and such a nice approach to your beautiful home. I live in a town and have 5 feet between me and the street. Always wanted a yard simular to yours. Richard from My Old Historic House.

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  4. Wow, what a nice view of your home! Where was your old driveway? How nice of your neighbor to do all that heavy work with his equipment. I can imagine the rattling of your windows... we live next to the railroad and the freight trains do the same to our home!

    -Pam

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  5. I love the color of your house... could you tell me what brand and color paint you used for the exterior. I've been searching for the perfect green and it's been a challenge getting it right.

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  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  7. Hi Rabbit,

    Yes, I can share with you the brand name of the exterior paint color for our house.

    It is a custom color of pale green. The brand name is LEGEND, a paint made by Valspar in Janesville, WI exclusively for our Wisconsin Mills Fleet Farm stores.

    It is a water based latex exterior paint, low lustre.

    Here's the formula for the pale green; you might be able to get it mixed at a store that carries Valspar paint.

    Base 5501 Tint
    B 1Y27.500/48
    D 0Y 3.500/48
    T 2Y 6.00/48

    We painted the Gables with a color called Barely Brown. I used Barely Brown again as an interior paint color in the room just off of the living room--a space we use for our office.

    Barely Brown
    Valspar VAL FLR I/E LTX SATIN
    ID: 321C-5
    Base: 2505 CLR

    AXN 2Y26.000/48
    KX 4Y 4.00/48
    L 4Y36.000/48
    M 0Y30.000/48

    Good luck on your house painting project. Glad you liked the house color we picked.

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  8. Ooops. I made a typing mistake on the number for the Barely Brown Base.

    Correct #is: 1505 CLR

    Mrs. D

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  9. Your house looks stunning! It’s only fitting for this marvelous house to have a spectacular driveway! Have you decided on the look of the driveway? Well, I’m pretty sure that you have something good in mind, and your contractors will definitely help you make that a reality. I would suggest you add some flowers or plants on the side of the driveway. It will make your home more beautiful.

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