Driveway Work Begins

Yesterday our concrete contractor was scheduled to come start work on our driveway expansion. They said they would arrive between 7:00 and 7:30am. I woke up before 6:00am to be safe. This was a good move because they showed up before 6:45am.

I thought I would need to move the mailbox which is located where the new driveway apron would go. Nope. The foreman did that for me. I also guessed I might need to cut down some bushes to allow them to move the dirt they dug up to a spot in the back yard I need filled. No again. The foreman used a bobcat to lift the bushes out of the ground.

I was surprised how efficient the bobcat machine was. They used it to dig up the ground. That is expected. They also used it to bust up the existing concrete that needed to go. Aha. There was a hiccup in the plans. They guys took their dump truck pick up some gravel for under the driveway. On that trip their tire exploded causing an accident.

They regrouped by having another dump truck do the gravel delivery while they got their tire replaced. I also thought these guys would be done by 2:00pm. No. That was just the time when the boards would be in place on the sides for an inspector to check. Turns out these guys stayed until 5:30pm. I was weary of keeping an eyer on them all day. Luckily Little Kat was home. He cooked me snacks whenever I got hungry.

False Start

I finally got a permit for our new driveway. It was an additional driveway lane that leads to a wide parking pad. I had to put up a $2000 bond for the changes to the county curb.

My contractor came out and did some recalculations based on the new stuff. The price estimate went from $3500 to almost $7000. We need this driveway. So I told him to go ahead and do it. He had the foreman come out and look at the job. Last night the foreman returned to go over the final details.

The foreman was more exact that the estimate guy. After he marked off where the actual driveway would go, I found that there was not enough room to turn into the wide parking pad. There was no way to make the design of the existing permit to work. This means I need to return to the dreaded permit office to make some modifications. Unlucky me.