Happy Tuesday!
The US is trying to return to work after a holiday weekend. We are having record heat here in Texas. For the people from other parts of the world, we are outside of the area affected by the recent storms. We’ve had a tornado, but we only caught the outer edge and our casualties consisted of broken tree and small outdoor statues pummeled by the golf-ball sized hail. They have been thrown away, which concludes the last of post-storm cleanup.
Seven years ago, when we were shopping for a new home, our current house was the ugly duckling of the neighborhood. It sat on the market for 18 months. The listing described it as “French chateau.”
In all fairness, it wasn’t Country French you actually see in France, but more of the Disney French. For example, we have five sets of French doors facing the patio, another set leading from the cooking area onto a different patio, and the office, which is a separate building, also sports two sets of French doors. They are so damn expensive to replace. The previous owners made some other odd decisions, like putting a fountain in the pool.
It looks pretty, but it is not rated for the pool. Between chlorine, then salt, then climate change, the fountain became a crumbling algae factory. One time I touched it to test how sturdy it was, and a chunk of it came off in my hand. Taking it out was the best decision ever.
::shudders:: It’s gone now.
Anyway, one of the “French” things about the house was this driveway. Here it is in its glory days.
It is a decomposed granite driveway. It has its pros and cons. Its pros are that it supposed to look like French countryside and it’s cheap. It is permeable and eco-friendly.
Lovely, right? It was lovely in the first year we bought it. And then the struggle began. (Although, by the time we bought it, that fountain had already crumbled.)
First, every spring we have severe storms. Hail and lots of water is dumped onto the property, which are followed by a scorching summer. Every summer we’ve had has been hotter than the last. Every summer we have water restrictions. We do not water our lawns, we let them die in the summer. In fact, if you’re walking through the neighborhood, you can tell immediately who is breaking the water restrictions, because their lawn is lush and green, and you can give them the stink eye.
That hedge required water. A lot of it.
You can see how the driveway is beginning to degrade. Which brings us to the cons of the decomposed granite. One, you cannot walk on it without shoes. Two, granite travels. Every storm that comes washes it to the side. You can see how the border stones kept being knocked out of place by the mail and delivery trucks, because they kept sliding over the granite. Three, over the years, as it broke down, the driveway began to turn into mud soup. Then came the weeds, which grew out of the mud/decomposed granite soup.
I refuse to use weed killer. It’s bad for the environment. We’ve tried weedeating the driveway, but that just sent granite shrapnel everywhere.
The last summer half of the hedge died. 23 consecutive days over 100 degrees. We tried to save it, but it just dried up and perished. And the driveway developed bald spots. Raking the remaining granite over them was impossible. It had compacted into this weird patchy crust.
At some point, when I lamented the state of it to our neighbor, he said, “You know they sued the HOA to put that in.”
Why? Why would you do this?
One day I found Gordon rubbing at the granite with his foot. He looked at me and said, “I think there is a concrete driveway under there.”
Why would there be a driveway? That would be stupid. The entire point of the DG driveway is that it is permeable. Water is meant to pass through it into the soil. If it is sitting on the concrete, we would have no end of mud problems… Oh.
We took some quotes from landscapers, all of whom agreed that it was impossible to scrape the driveway. We were stuck with it. We had this beautifully cut, perfectly maintained yard, but the driveway looked like an entrance to some sloppy Halloween horror house.
Then, after the tornado storm this year, we hired a pressure washing crew. The foreman looked at the driveway and said, “I think we can pressure wash it.”
We said, “Knock yourself out. And please remove the dead hedge while you are at it.”
Two days into it, he brought in a small excavator. Apparently the thickness of the granite reached eight inches in some places. How? Why?
The job is now done. You know how in the renovation shows, sometimes they rip the shag carpet out and find a beautiful oak floor underneath?
Before:
In progress when I thought we might have made a terrible mistake:
After:
It is insane how good this 30 year driveway looks. There are some cosmetic hairline cracks but otherwise, it is pristine. All of the DG went in the back onto the little trail we have going to the firepit. The excavator is being picked up today.
So, if you are in the Austin area and are looking for the pressure washing crew that goes above and beyond, I recommend Supreme Home and Commercial. Normally I would link to a website, but they don’t have one yet, so here is a phone number instead: 512-665-6436.
The usual disclaimer: this is a customer testimonial, not a professional endorsement. Your mileage may vary. We have no financial affiliation with this company and cannot guarantee their results.
Today I walked to the mailbox and back barefoot.
Barefoot? But… scorpions…
Eh. We got used to it.
One of those little buggers was living in the mailbox. Imagine my delight when he rushed toward me.
I can’t even imagine!
I’d imagine your response was similar to the one my husband had when he opened a bluebird nest to clean it out, and two snakes fell on his feet.
We have pretty big green tree frogs living in our mailbox
and everyone says Australia is so scary 😉
We used to have a Wētā living in our mailbox (which we called the Wētābox because of course).
They were charming
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C4%93t%C4%81
!!!
I was going to say, but… heat.
You can spot them easier on the bare concrete.
Innkeeper Final Boss level-
scorpion version of the Murder Trees.
+
I wouldn’t worry about the scorpions so much as how much heat concrete absorbs. I lived in FL for a few years, and by 2 PM when the mail was delivered, the cement was 150F most days from early May through September. You couldn’t walk on it without burning your feet, even if you thought your feet were tough and knew how to walk on hot colas without burning yourself.
This. So true, true. Added white shell to my all sand and straggled grass front yard. So. Weeds still grow 🙁 Reflects sun but oh my is it HOT in summer. Added to concrete drive way… ouch ouch, no bare footing here!
👏👏👏
That’s terrific!
All we need is a giant statue of a bulldog in the center bit and we will be set.
Make it a fountain and you can have water shooting out both ends.
🤣🤣🤣That comment killed me 💀🤣🤣🤣
I just spit out my tea 😀
🤣🤣🤣
LOL. I was going to ask what you were going to put there.
Make it a statue of Chernobog. Might help with the scorpions.
Seems like scorpions would be Chernobog’s kind of pets.
Hence the large one under Roman’s lawn.
Like the Gonzaga Bulldog?
Probably something like a Ye Olde English Bulldogge. Similar to our Miss Sookie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olde_English_Bulldogge
I wish I could show you pictures of some of the amazing frenchie statues we saw in the shops in Strasbourg, France.
One was large enough to qualify for your center bit, sporting very classy sunglasses too!
first?!
apparently not! I’m the time I read the new entry, someone beat me to it. 🙂
Why in heck did they put decomposed granite over perfectly good concrete?
P. S You had to walk before the afternoon sun hit. San Antonio is sweltering too!
We are having a storm coming in. It dropped to 81 degrees, wheee!
Fort Worth had the storms and wind this morning. We dropped to the upper 60s around 9 am.
Now for round two coming in after 7 pm. This will mean my weather radio will go off around midnight. Ugh. :p
Congratulations on getting much more than you ever hoped for in a reconstruction project.
I wish you at least 30 years of maintenance-free service.
That looks awesome
First, glad to hear you are safe and sound. Texas sounds like it is being pounded by the Wrath of God every time I turn on the news. mmm…. I wonder why, Governor Abbot???
Second, OMG the driveway looks great. The previous homeowners sued the HOA for the previous driveway? I am always amazed how a perfectly good looking home is made dreadful but a set of homeowners who decide to improve it. I know because I have one of those about 4 doors down from me. It was one of the best looking homes on the block, nice and neat and clean. The new owners added lots of plastic flowers to the front. Widen the driveway by adding cut up granite countertop to the sides and their F150 trucks cracked them. Lets not talk about taking off cut pieces of wood and making crappy lawn edging with it. The best is taking laminate marble looking countertops and gluing into a square to make edging around two beautiful trees and them filling up the space with all their extra wood scrapes. I gag every time I walk past that property.
Additional notes: Again why do people put in plants that are not suited for an area. You need drought tolerant plants that do well in your area not ones that need tons and tons of water. There are times you do not need to improve your home just maintain what is there.
The plan is to plant in early fall, after the heatwaves are over. Probably cacti.
Perhaps some Texas native plants? Good for the pollinators and ecosystem AND generally designed to thrive in local conditions—golf ball hail excluded!
https://www.npsot.org/posts/native-plant/?_sfm_max_height=0+120&_sfm_max_spread=0+80&_sfm_ecoregion=Texas+Blackland+Prairies&_sfm_water=Very+Low&sf_paged=1
Here is another list of native plants I found (though you can always use agave or yuccas too). https://lawnlove.com/blog/texas-native-plants/
Yeah, because that circle sits in the middle of what is basically a giant reflector oven. Desert plants for sure. Never had to deal with that but there may be some besides cactus that will work – sages, maybe? Spring bloomers in the middle, fall bloomers around the edge? Or if you put Gordon’s giant bulldog statue in, the north side will be a little shielded from the heat. A little. And the east, a teeny bit.
Plant some pride of barbados. We cut ours back after it freezes and it regrows back and we never water it.
https://txmg.org/hendersonmg/plant-library/pride-of-barbados/
Loved mine when living in the Caribbean. Gorgeous flowers.
Anybody know how it work with buying large cactus plants? I’ve been growing some from seed for the last 5 years and they are about 2 inches tall. Are there multiple generation cactus nurseries, where you’re buying plants that were started by the owner’s parents?
I thought cacti when I first saw the photos. A lovely property. Good luck with your improvements.
My aunt lives in Riverside County in California. Also known as smack in the Sonoran Desert. She loves live plants, but requests no live baby Christmas trees, because dying plants make her feel like a failure, and those Christmas trees always die before June.
We have replaced all annuals with succulents and other drought tolerant plants over here in NorCal.
That looks great! What a wonderful discovery. My driveway is pavers and here in Southern California the ground shifts so much, it’s got hills and valleys now. Not so extreme, but noticeable.
It’s always something with homeownership.
+1
Oh that is beautiful!!
First: OMG, all those french doors! What in heck were the builders thinking???? Second: that’s a really beautiful concrete driveway–congratulations! Who knew A Big Wind could give you something so nice? 🙂
Slight clarification: The builder was the first owner. He built what he wanted to live in. We also had a deck with a sunken hot tub entirely enclosed within a very small glass hot house like structure. It never worked. We had plumbers and electricians look at it. It was like that old Belmondo movie where the electrician tells him to call the plumber and the plumber tells him to call an electrician. Basically, we live in a French comedy.
French farce is more like it. 😂😂😂😂
Ah, the old Belmondo movies….
If you’re living in a french comedy it would be interesting what mysteries the deck/hot tub/glass house holds. Since you found another driveway under your driveway, who knows…
I love that movie! Thanks for the laugh
If you can’t fix it with a hammer, it’s an electrical fault….
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House.
Wow 😮 this is a surprise of epic proportions
THIS IS BANANAS. Thank you for sharing it!
Wow to the after pictures. Opens up the driveway space without all the other crap on it.
With straight line winds and possible tornados, the builder wanted french doors?! Um…why???? I could see it if the builder wanted to maximize the sunlight. Other than that, uh no. Too much of a hazard not only for you, but also your neighbors.
Seeing what a 2×4 can do to the side of a house when the wind is over 100 miles per hour is bad. Flying glass is worse.
And no storm doors to protect them. When we lived in Japan when I was a kid the company house had glass sliders (early ones, this was in the 1950s). The first typhoon we went through my folks watched their reflections in the glass get fat and skinny as the wind gusts hit the glass and blew it fractionally in and sucked it outwards. The next day my father marched into the office and informed them that the company was paying for storm blinds. I remember as a small kid ‘helping’ my father put them up. Made the living room tunnel dark but it beat the alternative.
Wow. Just wow. The after is sooooo much better. “Rather odd decisions” is a polite way to put it.
Lucky lucky you!
So glad this worked out for you!
That is absolutely amazing! Wow … so much backstory drama! They sued to put in a horrible driveway… but then surprise it’s amazing underneath!
it’s like watching a britcom. Fawlty Towers anyone?
My experience with house styles is limited to a college class (1978) in historical preservation, specifically Wisconsin 1850’s – 1920’s. I would say, however, that the front view of the main house does give off “chateau” vibes, especially the first floor windows.
Hooray for the storm cleanup being done, the lucky find of the very nice driveway, and the recycling of the granite covering into a path to your fire pit area!! Here’s to cooler and quieter weather, for however long it stays around!!
+100
That looks one hundred percent better. I bet you’ve loads of ideas for the hedge free circle area.
Stay safe, stay as close to healthy as possible 😊
that looks amazing! Great job that company!
Also, at a guess, the decomposed granite might have been fine if it hadn’t been sitting on top of concrete and unable to drain properly.
It sounds like he did what he wanted without ever researching how to do it right.
Your driveway looks fantastic!
As a side job I do the accounting for a small commercial pressure washing company.
He does so many extras for me (I never ask, he just sees). Great guy. I want to create a website for him. He deserves the business.
Your guy must be related to mine.
We moved into our home 13 years ago and it had a HUGE 3,000 sqft deck in the backyard. It wasn’t in the best shape and a few more years of heavy snow and hot summers (we live outside of Tahoe) it was a mess. The price of refinishing was almost the same as a new deck. One day my husband was trying to fix a few boards when he noticed something underneath….they covered a BEAUTIFUL stone paver patio. We tore up the rotting/dangerous deck and power washed the stone. It looks beautiful! We felt the same way, like we found perfect hardwood floors under harvest gold shag!
Our first house we found the beautiful floor under red shag. They had also run the red shag half way up the bathroom walls (and on the floor of course) to go with the existing pink sink.
O_O
The red shag reminds me of the purple shag Andrea put into Raphael’s house. 🤪
Sounds like the same decorator that did our house, orange shag with turquoise walls… All long gone thank goodness, revealing lovely old oak floors and white walls. We had the theory that the owners were color blind!
Ah, those nightmare design years of the ’60’s and ’70’s, shag carpet and horrendous color combos….
😬😬😬
The older I get, the more I find comfort in neutrals.
Don’t forget the sunken living rooms and conversation pits.
Very dangerous for the people still living in those houses.
My theory is that those colors-esp avocado green & mustard yellow (my bathroom porcelain 😳)-seemed like a great idea to all the avant- guard people experimenting with LCD & other pharmaceuticals…
I’m on various old houses subreddits, and this is all referred to as the “floor lottery”: tear up the old crap and see if you’ve won the lottery or not.
I have an older house in Florida, and I’ve torn up 3 layers of flooring. No floor lottery yet, but I did tear out a bunch of bushes and found a patio with a filled in koi pond, so that was fun!
Wish me luck in the flooring lotto. Crappy vinyl (the cheapest you can get) ‘mimics’ hardwood oak. Reality it is orange and nasty. Under neath I know terrazzo lurks, question is what kind of condition is the terrazzo in? Can it be rescued or should it be ‘covered up’? I think it is cream with blue flecks in it…
What nobody tells you about terrazzo is you have to polish it, essentially grind it down to keep that shine. or use old fashioned heavy duty wax. The grinding was as expensive as tiling over it. we gave up and tiled. Much happier but someday I can see someone discovering our terazzo….
Wow! Just wow. What a difference.
I’m glad you found someone that could resolve the issue.
Congrats on the lucky find, both the concrete driveway and the competent pressure-washing crew who could unearth (un-granite?) it.
We once pulled old carpet out and found fir floors underneath … not as nice as oak, but much preferable to brown shag carpet. I would just oil it every now and then with half Old English scratch cover and half Old English light polish (lemon/almond) and they would look nice for a month or two … just like making salad dressing, with a bottle in each hand, sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle … 😊
Wow! The driveway looks amazing now! Crazy how much effort went into a fight to install the stone when there was perfectly good concrete underneath!
I hate, hate, hate the scorpions. We get them in Cedar Park this time of year. Even after 20+ years of living here they freak me out!
The driveway looks great! Those hedges were probably a nightmare for upkeep. Xeriscape it!
We used to live in Cedar Park, never saw them there. We did have bats though. Maybe they kept them in check. No, this is the first place we’ve lived where they are pretty common. Seven years and yes, they still freak me out too.
Looks great! We had a gravel driveway in NC It was put in very well and we really didn’t have many problems at all. They put down the weed fabric and except for a few spots we didn’t even have a weed problem. We did have to bring in some more gravel after 15 years but I didn’t think that seemed excessive. You can’t walk on it in bare feet but after the second copperhead, I stopped wanting to walk in bare feet outside. The deck, patio and backyard were sufficient.
OMG! Talk about a transformation. WTF were the previous owners thinking!?!
Gorgeous. It looks gorgeous. I”m so glad that you found the right people to undo the crazy
How beautiful! And wonderful the ugly duckling driveway saga had a happy ending. There’s nothing more dispiriting that dead/dying plants.
But that circle definitely needs a . . . something. A large lion statue, perhaps?
Hehe. Of course you realize the BDH will be on standby with lots of helpful suggestions.
With faint stripes…
My vote goes to a giant tortoise, LOL. Fountain style. Good Feng Shi/ brings luck…
Well that didn’t come out right.
https://assets.wfcdn.com/im/89296342/resize-h445%5Ecompr-r85/3584/35846572/Petey+Statue.jpg
Congratulations on the lovely new-to-you driveway. What a difference!
We whine in the Northeast about the muggy 80s we’re experiencing now but I know it could be so much worse.
I had people in Boston look at me funny when I told my mom, “This weather is nothing compared to what we get in Oklahoma.” We were on the way through Boston Common to get to an appointment to talk with someone at Suffolk University about their Masters degree program.
Another reason they could have been looking at me funny was that I was in a black pants suit with a white top. They probably thought I was a professor, or I was going to an interview to be an instructor. 😀
I agree with the many compliments on the driveway you found under the mess you had. I’m sorry the hedge died, but it was entirely the wrong thing for your area – and I know that even growing up in the wilds of Oregon.
I think the pressure washing company might be surprised at the uptick in their business.
And, on another subject entirely: I heard this morning that a dead whale recently washed up on another Oregon beach. Somehow, I doubt that dynamite is on the table for getting rid of this one.
Yeah, that was epic. A half ton of TNT, a whale carcass with built up gasses and a LIVE NEWS crew. What could possibly go wrong? /s
(Just google Oregon exploding whale to find the video)
It is gorgeous…..
Barefoot! It must have cooled down a bit;-)
But- it looks great! We may question why the put a permeable drive OVER the existing drive but this is much, much better!
Awesome. That’s a nice concrete driveway. You can roller skate on it!
I’m so thrilled that you can driveway yourself barefoot. there is something so satisfying about being able to run around without shoes 💜
It looks so smooth! We just bought our first house almoat 2 yrs and have found a few surprises that the last owner “renovated” himself. Nothing as pretty and mind boggling as your driveway. But ugh it always costs a lot to fix it properly. Enjoy your new surface, and I bet the mail carrier will be happy too!
Oh that was a gorgeous find! And lucky – when my FIL removed the not-even-shag carpet out of the bathroom of his previous place (and who puts carpet in a bathroom?!), all he found was rotted wood requiring him to redo a significant part of the beams (joists…?) holding up the second floor 😅
May all your “afters” succeed so happily! Hopefully that includes your health, weather and energy grid systems. Perhaps you can include some kolovershi garden guardians among your future cacti?
Awww, kolovershi gnomes!
please watch “Money Pit” – those are homeownership woes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Money_Pit)
Lovely! That company did a fantastic job.
The home I grew up in was a nightmare when my parents bought it. First floor: living room, entry, dining room walls, blinds and ceiling was painted forest green. The small breakfast room had cabbage rose wallpaper hung upside down. The kitchen had a black dado board running around it. Everything above the board was Chinese yellow, everything below was Chinese red.
The upstairs walls, ceiling and blinds was a “cheery” battleship gray.
When my dad took my mother to see the house he said “Now before you go in, I’ll paint everything.”
It took 6 coats of industrial sealer to stop the red and yellow in the kitchen from bleeding through. BTW, there was a sink hung on the kitchen wall. No cabinets, just a sink.
I love people who think outside the box. What a great contractor! We have been working with a great carpenter on replacing windows in a family cabin (they have been leaking for 20 years!) The elders in our family just kept recaulking them!
He only hesitated a bit when we talked about raising the floor in a porch room so it was the same level as the living room and also raising the outside deck to the same level! It’s so much better.
Congrats on a much more useful and beautiful and hopefully no more headache driveway!
NFW on the driveway! I can actually understand finding the beautiful hardwood underneath the ugly shag carpet but the driveway thing makes no sense.
What a find!
nice picture of the cat admiring the new driveway
+1
I could not believe my eyes!
Omg. Who in their right mind would put decomposed granite over a perfectly good concrete driveway! It costs so much to prepare and pour a concrete surface! Congratulations on your lovely reno!
There are lots of native plants that would look great there in the circle. I love my Esperanza’s. You do have to chop them back each spring, but my they come up each year and bloom all summer without any water added. They prefer full sun and grow easily to 4’ x 3’ bushes. Just a thought if you like low maintenance color.
The driveway looks great! I do have a suggestion for dealing with weeds in decomposed granite, since you will still have a DG path on your property. I also will not use weed killer.
Our DG is in the front of our house in San Diego, and our HOA was unhappy with the weeds this year. (We had a good amount of rain this winter and as you know, rain = weeds in DG.) I heard about a propane torch and we ordered one. My husband loves using it. (“Fire!”)
Burn the weeds and they don’t come back. Keep a charged hose handy just in case. It’s brilliant. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093BW4GMY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Scorch the earth option, love it 😀
That’s a great idea. Unfortunately, San Diego is a little bit different from central Texas. 🙂 We are forbidden from having that kind of open flame in the summer. We are advised to not mow when it gets really dry because one spark and it will go up in flames. They regulate our grills. We can only have an open fire if the grill has a lid.
My neighbor has been using a mix of vinegar,salt and dawn dish detergent on weeds and on the fence edge so he doesn’t have to weed eat. It seems to work like a charm and is safe around his dog. He carefully avoided the area of fence where I planted peas!
Yes, salted earth doesn’t let anything grow, wop wop.
Be aware that rains may salt your pea growing area anyhow.
Vinegar definitely works – and is more ecologically friendly than other chemicals. Try 45% Pure Vinegar – Concentrated Industrial Grade aka horticultural vinegar. Be sure to open and mix the vinegar OUTSIDE – it’s incredibly strong smelling – and use safety glasses and gardening gloves to protect yourself.
Mix a ratio of 1 gallon (3.8 L) vinegar, 1 cup (273 g) of table salt and 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of (Dawn) dish soap until thoroughly mixed. Fill a spray bottle and go kill those weeds! Note: this will also kill other plants so don’t use it in close proximity to anything you WANT to grow 🙂
1 gallon white vinegar, 1 cup salt, 1 tbsp dish detergent. it’s not toxic and less of an environmental issue, and will absolutely work, but may require repeat treatments.
This is really a spring thing, so maybe early enough? By summer, at least in SD, it’s dry enough that new weeds don’t sprout.
Our neighbor is spraying the mixture to kill the grass under and about 2 inches on either side of a chain link fence. We have had a fairly wet spring in central Illinois. We appreciate his efforts – I hate clipping grass! By summer it’s my garden that turns brown and dries up. Somehow the grass just keeps going
Just remember to not walk barefoot to the mailbox when that concrete heats up. That hot concrete can be very uncomfortable slso
The driveway looks so much better with the concrete. You could put a vala tree in the circle, just saying😂
I’ve found plenty of wild and weird things in mailboxes. (I’m a mailman)
Scorpions, not the worse nor the weirdest 🤷🏽♀️
Oh, come on, you can’t leave it there. What was the worst and what was the weirdest?
+1 😂
The cliffhanger is going to drive the rest of the Horde up the driveway and the wall. 🙂
Wow, a what a difference. Nice job with the pressure washing!
How amazing! I’m so glad this worked out for you!
We live in a house that is well over 100 years old (we are not sure of the exact age, but it is a Victorian house with pocket doors, high ceilings, the whole bit). This house has been through many many owners and they have all made… interesting decisions in renovations.
We have learned that when you rip ANYTHING down, you may find all manner of unexpected surprises revealed.
You know those pocket doors? They are not original to the house. Know how I know that? When we were young and foolishly optimistic homeowners, we decided to rip down the wallpaper in the living room and paint it all up in a nice cream color before we moved our furniture in. These words will make you both laugh and cringe if you have ever done remodeling in a house this old.
We are ripping down wallpaper and we realize that under that is a huge, thick chunk of MANY other layers of wallpaper and they are on PLASTER, because this house has never seen drywall. Fine, fine, we can patch plaster. We persevere. I am ripping down pieces on the main wall using a steamer and I hear my husband say, “Hmm. That’s interesting.” This is never good, FYI.
He informed me that the wall that holds the fancy solid wood pocket doors doesn’t have plaster. It was added on later and they used a layer of cardboard similar to what you would find in a cereal box (I assume it was a product made for the purpose) and glued sheets of that to barn board and then wallpapered over the whole deal.
We had huge special-ordered sheets of 12 foot drywall stacked beside the couch and our living room had half-peeled wallpaper on every wall for months. It all turned out lovely, but it was a good lesson to learn right out of the gate.
I think owning an old house is just one long game of asking “what were the previous owners thinking?”
My house was built in 1780. The crazy we have found as things broke and needed to be fixed… I can’t begin to describe. Except… the completely corroded metal pipe in the wall that had pvc at the top and bottom, when we opened the wall to see how bad the leak was, there was an empty beer can from 1979. I keep hoping for George Washington’s gold but no. Just old Budweiser thrown into the void…
Looks stunning!^^
Amazing!! It looks so nice, clean and smooth.
Have you guys watched the show on HGTV called the Ugliest House in America? You should give it a try. It’s unbelievable how each person’s taste is subjective. Great show, it shows you want not to do 🙂
Ohhh, pretty! I love the house AND the driveway. I retired in the country and my driveway is gravel. Less gravel than before as we had a literal gully-washer a couple of years ago that moved my gravel driveway into my front yard. Phooey. I’m really stubborn so instead of hiring the driveway gravel guys I’m replacing it bag by bag of 40lbs of gravel at a time because it’s become my life challenge. It turns out I really enjoy mindless, repetitive physical work in my old age. It’s a meditation on everything I thought I knew about the purpose of life and what I’m beginning to realize I never had a glimpse of until the 10th or 20th bag of gravel dumped into the red clay of my driveway gives me some clarity. Only 300 bags to go.
That is a fantastic driveway! Why would anyone cover that up? Glad you found it now though 😃
The best weed killer out there is a .99 cent bottle of store brand white vinegar. Kills absolutely everything with zero harsh chemicals. I highly recommend it.
Glad you got the driveway figured out. The joys of home ownership, as they say.
Wow! That 30 year driveway is in great shape! I like it much better than the crushed rock. I also think getting rid of the hedge adds to the clean lines of the driveway. I lived in New Mexico for a while. Some plants I saw in yards there that might work for you are century plants and prickly pear cactus. One of those Those might make a nice focal point for an area of your yard. Century plants grow tall and get wider over the years.Prickly pear seems to grow to about knee to hip height and then spreads out. It has red fruit on it. There are also some succulents that are very pretty ground cover and spread fast that I’ve seen at the Denver Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately I can’t think of the name of it. What I like about xeroscape gardens with cacti and succulents is the interplay of textures and colors.
Such an improvement! Can I suggest pride of barbados for the center? Basically the worst the soil and the dryer the clime the better it seems to do. I toss them out by our long drive where we never water and they’re gorgeously cheerful and come back each year. Normally I would also say lantana, but I had 2 that didn’t make it through the winter :/.
I cannot believe the covered up that lovely driveway. So glad you discovered it.
I cannot believe they covered up that lovely driveway. So glad you discovered it.
looks amazing! I’m still trying to correct all the stupidity from the previous owner’s landscape choices (just about every mix and match of toxic, vine, and non-native you don’t want all combined with put in the wrong place with the wrong sizes and also frequently the wrong growing locations).
luckily I was able to find better homes for a couple of things that are nice to keep while removing the nasties and I’m even starting to get lightning bugs and such coming back!
The newly cleared drive looks great but I’m stunned you are with a HOA.
Do most US suburbs have HOAs?
I had assumed it was mostly on purpose built streets that all look the same (sort of like UK housing estates) and the gated communities that have essentially the same house/s and plots repeated which is why they like to enforce uniformity so strictly.
I would never have thought that bigger homes like yours would be subject to such levels of control that someone would need to sue just to do their own drive, regardless of their style choice. Did you also have to ask if you could then remove the gravel?
It seems strange whenever I hear about US home owners associations telling people they must cut their grass a certain length or have their front door a particular colour. It would make me feel paranoid and probably act all perversely contrary.
The UK is starting to get more controlling residents associations but even then it’s still mostly covering things like communal costs and circumscribed services to tender rather than governing individual expression over their own property.
No, we mostly do not have HOAs. As far as I’m aware, anyway. We’ve never lived under one. Historically, they were meant to keep non-white/non-christian people out of certain neighborhoods (and thus “maintaining property values”). Governing the appearance of the homes and properties was just window dressing, so while many HOA communities today do feature cookie-cutter homes, that’s not, historically speaking, a requirement.
Hi Christine,
That is not quite accurate. Fun fact: prior to becoming a full time writer, I worked as a legal assistant for a law firm that dealt exclusively with HOAs.
https://hub.associaonline.com/blog/a-complete-history-of-hoas
As you can see, one third of us in US lives in the HOA.
Any time you have a subdivision that’s built recently, you’re going to have an HOA because subdivisions have common areas. For example, you will see a brick column fence in the photos. We own everything on our side of the fence, but on the other side of the fence is the narrow strip of ground that is the community easement. Someone must mow it. Someone must maintain the trees that were planted there. The terms of this maintenance must be spelled out.
There was a recent storm that resulted in massive tree damage. Our HOA coordinated with the city and we got a tree refuse truck that came through on a certain date. All we had to do was to drag the branches to the curb. Another issue – we got feral hogs plowing through the neighborhood. The HOA contracted a trapping service.
That said, there are horribly restrictive and borderline predatory HOAs out there.
PS. If you want to see some really ridiculous HOA communities, Florida is a good bet. There are some which will charge you 40K for the privilege of applying to purchase and then the other members of the HOA must vote on whether or not they will allow you to buy a house there. Those are the cases where some of that bias Christine mentioned can and does come into play.
But if you’re on streets wouldn’t the bits between houses that belong to neither property be maintained by the local governing bodies the same way the streets are?
I understand charges for communal areas within buildings and even on separate estates (though even then it’s more normally just for areas that are only accessible to residents) but not on public streets.
Does US have common law land rights like we do? Because if you or your neighbour maintain the unclaimed strip of land unopposed for a certain number of years it could be registered on your deed.
Donna, our social net sucks. A lot of subdivisions are like little villages. They are outside of the municipal borders or are part of very small incorporated places, so “the city” isn’t responsible for them. There is no local governing body outside of the county, which provides limited services.
“Does US have common law land rights like we do? Because if you or your neighbour maintain the unclaimed strip of land unopposed for a certain number of years it could be registered on your deed.”
I am not a lawyer, so I can’t answer. I believe that it varies by state, but our land ownership is very different from UK, for example. US takes trespassing very seriously. In UK it is common to use private land for recreational walks, while in US you might get shot.
It would be nice to think that people can maintain common areas without legally binding agreements but in practice it doesn’t work. For example, there is a wet weather creek behind our back fence. Technically, it is part of our property, but there is an easement protecting the creek, so we cannot build anything close to it like a fence. Every month, Gordon mows the stretch of grass bordering that area and we dig out bottles and garbage out of the brush. People go into that little wooded strip for various reasons and trash it.
Now imagine that you have a communally maintained pool. The only way for that pool to stay clean is to collect a fee from every resident to maintain it. Without an HOA, people wouldn’t pay the fee. They would argue that they don’t use the pool so they should be exempt, or they would complain about the pool service used because their brother’s wife’s cousin can do it cheaper, or they didn’t like that the pool uses chlorine because they like bromide, etc.
Normally I avoid HOAs like fire. In fact, I vetoed a very beautiful home we were looking at because their bylaws specified two dogs or less per household. And when I was assured that nobody would be counting our dogs, I told the realtor that it’s not what they would do, it’s what they could legally do.
Our current HOA is super laid back and mostly helpful. We actually have two, but one is voluntary. That is not always the case.
Here is a little bit more on the HOA: https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/what-is-an-hoa/#pros-v-cons
Thanks for the link. I get quite paranoid about these things so the idea of a group having so much control over what should be an individuals’s property and personal rights just thoroughly unnerves me.
It’s exactly as you said, “it’s not what they would do, it’s what they could legally do.”
I’ll just try and assume from now on that unless otherwise specified any HOAs I read about might actually be benign and not instantly suspicious.
But it’s going to be hard for my mind to make the switch from evil overlord to ambivalent caretaker!
i dont know about other cities, but in my city (major metropolitan area and its suburbs) there are no “bits between houses that belong to neither property”. my property butts up directly against the neighbors property on both sides. if you ask, the city can come out and mark the exact line between your properties for you, like if you’re going to install a fence.
I’m in central London UK, a major urban area which also lacks much in the way of unoccupied strips of land!
However as you move outwards and in other British cities, towns and villages, we do have them.
We’ve quite often got back alleys; we even have them in London. These are like narrow (or not so narrow) bits of land, (generally paved but I do know of a few grassy ones) that run at the back between two rows of terraced houses.
Often these remain municipal property and are the financial responsibility of your local council (admittedly they aren’t always on top of maintenance and they can become dumping grounds for used white goods) or as is my aunt’s case in Yorkshire, her deed shows where precisely on the lane is hers and she only has to make sure there’s nothing blocking access through her area (for right of way). That’s it. She can let weeds grow if she wants. Prop a rusty bike on her wall so long as it doesn’t impede progress. Paint her garden gate luminous yellow or even change the paving surface in her specific segment (believe it or not someone really did this elsewhere, it looked rather peculiar to see all cobbles and then a patch of tarmac in the middle).
In our area, the HOA still exists and we have common areas. (The neighborhood was built in the late 70s. At this point, this area has been completely annexed by the city. The city is responsible for maintaining the common areas (mostly small strips of land with the occasional tree between house backyards).
So the city pays a contractor to come out and mow the common areas. I think they may also take care of trees in the common area as well. The nearest tree to us is a pine tree, which is quite healthy, but I imagine if something ever happened to the tree and it took out part of our fence, we would have to talk to the city about the damages.
Our HOA doesn’t do much, other than tattle on people not paying dues, making sure people don’t park boats/campers in driveways, and making sure that any sort of construction has to be done with permits. The small strip of greenery at the entrances to the subdivision is maintained by the HOA and not the city.
We’re lucky. There are HOA’s out there that dictate what colors are acceptable to paint your house and how tall your grass is allowed to be.
We have something called easement by prescription which does vary from state to state but works sort of like what you describe https://www.findlaw.com/realestate/land-use-laws/prescriptive-easements.html
That looks wonderful. The why’s of some of the previous owner choices are curious. We lost most of our lawn last summer and a 25 year old magnolia tree, we are in Houston. I’m trying to figure out a small tree I can plant that can take the rollercoaster weather.
OOOO – AAHHH. Adult homeowning is hard.This is beautiful. Yay, Y’all.
Ohmygosh that’s SOOOOOOOO much better. So much better. I’m so, so happy for y’all! That’s awesome. Hallelujah!
So whatcha gonna put it in the now empty circle?
Giant bulldog statue. Possibly on a pedestal. Harder to find than one might think.
Not even the Toscano catalog? They seem to have all the stuff …
Unfortunately it must be concrete. Anything resin will fly off with the storms.
And then there’s the risk of a statue being moved by wind… when I was a kid our house was about a mile away from a tornado, but the straight line winds picked up two 200lb doghouses and threw them halfway through a chain link fence 🤦♀️ We were lucky they were caught in the fence and didn’t hit a house.
omg concrete driveway, i’d love one of those and it looks so nice
Also, on a side note, i hate hedges, fine if other people want to have them but not if i have to do the hedging.
I’ve slowly replaced everything in my yard that needs hedging, planted something that grows to the height I wanted and bingo, privacy and no hedging 🙂 Ands as i’m in Australia all Australia natives
That driveway transition is stunning OO Put some fake plants or other nick nacks in the dirt circle and it starts being a glamour home wow
Yay for professional tradespeople whose aims are stellar customer service and personal pride in their work. Not sure what the HOA is or why an owner would have to sue them regarding their driveway. But I can imagine the bliss of walking to the letterbox in bare foot. My landlord has used crushed shells in parts round the house, and I have very mixed feelings about it. Yes my immediate thought re circular of earth was ‘I wonder what is native to that area?’ Completely agree re fountain removals, especially considering the changing climate and the impact on water availability. Go you good things – you will evidently leave the place better than when you found it.
“A HomeOwners Association (HOA) is an organization in a subdivision, planned community, or condominium building that makes and enforces rules for the properties and residents.
Those who purchase property within an HOA’s jurisdiction automatically become members and are required to pay dues, which are known as HOA fees.
Some associations can be very restrictive about what members can do with their properties, while others may give residents more freedom.”
Basically, the HOA makes the rules and regulations about what you and your neighbors can and can’t do, and you have to obey those rules and regulations or face fines or legal drama. I lived in a townhome with an HOA once, and couldn’t get out of there fast enough. some are so restrictive you can’t even put a planter out by your own front door.
Ours son lives in Mesquite which is just east of Dallas. One, those storms tore through so bad he called me during and said, “Mom, send me a hurricane, I don’t like this whole maybe tornado thing.” His reasoning was that hurricanes are predictable. This is the child who moved out of Florida as fast as he could. Two, He works for Waffle House and we all know that Waffle House is the barometer for all things storm and disaster related. He went to work that afternoon and walked into no AC. They had started doing togo orders only at that point but he called and said he sent his staff is outside cause it’s to hot inside the store. His words, “Hell is cooler than this $#@%.” He has been trying to get us to move to Texas. This was not a glowing recommendation. We left FL for Kentucky. I am not a fan of Kentucky so far. It has seasons, like winter. All in all, he’s safe and that is what matters. Although the no AC thing at work would make me quit..lol
Don’t encourage your son to move to Oklahoma if he doesn’t like tornados. Living in Oklahoma for 5 years really makes you learn what to watch out for when a tornado is nearby besides the hail and extremely dark clouds. If you ever see a “pea green” sky, get into your tornado safe place. If you’re outside, see that sky, and can’t get to a sturdy shelter, get into a deep ditch.
As a kid in Las Vegas, my brother and I would play with scorpions.
Looks very nice! That must have made you feel good.
What are you going to do with the inner circle? Leave it alone? Flowers? Maybe you could move the fountain there. 🤣
They covered up a concrete driveway? That is truly the height of insanity. Anybody prefers concrete over granite shedding crumbs of hell. Omg I am truly appalled and thrilled that you got this “gift”! What a surprise.
I have DG instead of lawn in my backyard in between all of my flowers . I’m in CA and it’s drought friendly. Mines over a bed of gravel for drainage. Doesn’t seem like good driveway material in a place that gets extreme weather. That newly uncovered driveway looks fantastic!
I have a mental picture of you jumping up and down seeing the old driveway for the first time and taking pictures of it. Like Maud taking pictures of Matilda cooking.
It looks lovely! maybe just a low maintenance fire cracker or crêpe myrtle tree or whatever is easy in Texas in the circle. Please not cactus in front of this style of “builder’s chateau”. We’re going through the same landscaping death there in central Florida. +the dengue fever mosquitos. Too hot even for an early morning coffee. Glad there’s no such thing as global warming, she said, tongue in cheek.
Just wow! Just gorgeous! I feel relieved for you. Big smile.
You can use vinegar to kill weeds. It’s organic and not bad for the environment. Google search will find multiple recipes. I just used it in an area where my chickens scratch and it works
That looks so much better. Excellent choice.
Looks amazing!!
wow, that concrete, I would kiss it! Your power washer is brilliant.
You may wanna consider installing some German style roller shutters on those French doors in the future, with all the extreme weather patterns intensifying
What a fantastic conclusion to that debacle! People are so weird. I can’t remember encountering any decomposed granite driveways in rural France. Mostly either dirt/weeds or bigger types of rock.
OMG! This almost never happens!!! I have remodeled four homes and my luck goes like this: The bush (in my case a huge lush Japanese maple) in the center of the driveway was actually planted to cover up an ancient concrete septic tank that the previous homeowner did not want to remove. This is why the tree had done oddly well during droughts, but also why it emitted a god awful odor towards the end of the summer.
The new concrete driveway cannot be poured to maximize the usable space without removing the concrete septic tank. To remove the septic tank I have to kill the tree. Which is the whole reason I bought the house. It has three huge old growth Japanese maples on it…Sigh. Needless to say the Japanese maple won out, and the driveway was minimized, but then cracked after it was put in by heavy equipment driving on it. Enough about me.
Congratulations on hitting the home remodel lottery! Speaking of which… You guys should get a ticket with your current streak of luck 🙂
BTW beautiful home. I like the thought that you guys are sitting in a “chalet “while writing your amazing books. :)!!!!!
Looks fabulous !! Stuff made 30 years ago was made to last. Not like today unfortunately.
Please, please, please- Google Greer Guardian Angel.
Perfect for your former hedge area and the neighbors will want you to add a moat.
omg the cost of installing a brand new concrete driveway THAT SIZE, in today’s economy, it’d be astronomical!!! that is a wonderful fabulous awesome find!
definitely makes you wonder what the heck the previous owner was thinking, covering it up with crappy gravel.
How wonderful that an “older home” came with a disguised blessing rather than the repair nightmare that so many present! Barefoot is good for you 🙂
so happy for the beautiful concrete drive!
no tracking granite in the house.
I feel like maybe this awesome discovery & service was recompense for the horrible paint job last summer. (or was that two summers ago?)
fingers crossed you also get a nice vacation
That is amazing. That ‘deconstructed granite’ has been protecting your concrete for years! I was worried the end was black asphalt which melts in the sun.
*deconstructed granite used to be called ‘gravel’
beautiful driveway find! and kudos for being environmentally responsible with water use. in case you are interested in adding more drought tolerant native plants, this link has some resources to learn from: https://www.npsot.org/resources/native-plants/native-plants-database/
Call me a Philistine, but uncovering that beautiful concrete drive is almost as exciting as excavating and uncovering a Roman mosaic floor — and much more practical. People posted great links for native, drought tolerant plants. Here’s one for
Xeriscaping-Friendly States: Grants, Rebates & Legal Guide
https://xeriscapeswan.com/xeriscaping-friendly-states-grants-rebates-legal-guide/#Discovering_Grants_and_Rebates
They covered that up? Wow. Checked the book release schedule. Looking forward to seeing Roman’s book, Sanctuary.
You know what would go great in that circular bit? A mosaic of House Andrews crest! Solves the weed problem!
Have you sealed the concrete driveway yet? You want to protect your new and precious darling.
If you can’t find the right cement lawn ornament, get a resin one and fill it up with cement or gravel.
Congratulations. So very nice when the karma scales swing back the other way for a change.
That “new” driveway looks amazing!!!
Wow! Amazing and it looks great!
I am firmly convinced that every house needs tweaking, especially in the first few years after purchase.
What will you do now with the circle in front? (Where the hedge was.)
We had a slider in our house of 30+ years; and I was so happy when we replaced it with French doors. It looked so much nicer and there wasn’t that nasty bottom strip where it slid back and forth, and you couldn’t clean it to save your life. I know from experience that they are terribly heavy. Husband and I tried to install the French doors by ourselves; and did. But we really needed 2 more people to help us. Who knew glass was so heavy?
Wow, the driveway looks so much better! My parents have a driveway / walkway that’s lined with pebbles for drainage reasons. Works well, except when my dad, who passed away last year, needed an ambulance. The walkway was considered so treacherous by emergency services that two ambulances would have to be sent out. Urgh.
Your driveway is like finding beautiful hardwood underneath carpet and 2 layers of linoleum. It looks fantastic!!
That is beautiful! Major score for you
So pretty!
Good for y’all. Thanks for the lovely pretty update.
i live out in the country in Montana. i have a gravel drive way. every spring i weed my driveway between my house and the shed, about 20 feet by 30 feet. the rest of the drive way has weeds, i don’t care, it gets me outside in the spring, even if it is raining after a long winter, and if any flax grows up in the area i weed i leave it alone because i like flax. i like to see the weed free area compared to the rest of it but i don’t let it bother me because i decided what my limitations are.
i like your new/old driveway.
In Dallas at 6 am on Tuesday strong winds and heavy rain ripped out a big Chinese Pistache tree in the back yard, which knocked over the back fence and downed the retaining wall. The good news was, the tree didn’t hit the house (it fell in the other direction). It wasn’t a shared fence so it didn’t affect anyone else. And our power and internet finally came back on at noon today (Wednesday). It could have been a lot worse. Knock on wood.
P.S. Love the “new” old driveway. Good decision!!
Wow, your drive looks so much better now. You have to love the difference. And they should have put that fountain where the hedge in front was. Now your drive and front entrance looks so elegant.
Maybe cactii or succulents would be a better choice for the bit in the center of the driveway. One neighbor has a huge mound of aloe arborescens aka Torch Aloe. It flowers in spring and is spectacular
Holy crap. I am very seriously impressed.
Unbelievably beautiful
looks epic, can’t believe the insane choice was made to cover it with loose stone. congratulations!
Ahhh…sweet, sweet concrete!
Amazing difference! The sight lines are so improved. As far as plants, my friends in the Palm desert like lantanas. Easy upkeep, drought resistant, and pretty flowers. Don’t know if they’d make a hedge if a hedge is what you want. Some bushes are multi colored blooms, attract pollinators.
Anyway, like the new look, and wish many years maintenance free.
OMG, it’s beautiful! Enjoy, you earned it!
It’s beautiful!!! I had DG walkways in our backyard put in our backyard so my mom could get around her garden with her walker. We live in the desert and don’t have grass or anything that needs water – except for her roses. So I want her to be able to get out and smell her roses! I’m about 50% happy with the walkways. It’s year 2 and the weeds have kinda gotten away from me. But a hula hoe, the hose, and a tamper seem to bring things back into shape. But it definitely takes work.
Glad you guys have weathered the weather! So far. 🙂
Do you plan on planting some native plants or anything to replace the hedge?
Wow, what a difference. They did a great job! I can see why they exceeded your expectations.
No accounting for taste, is there? Glad y’all got that sorted out – what a headache.
Holy cow, that driveway looks great! It looks like it was just put in! Congratulations!
This was a much happier story than I thought it was going to be. Winning !
What a pain but the end result looks great!
I can confirm the heat 😂 we were in Texas over the weekend for my stepdaughter’s graduation ceremony and it was 100°F in Fort Worth 😫
Then our flight was delayed nine times and eventually canceled right before midnight on Monday. The hotels power went out in the middle of the night from the hurricane force winds and then our flight Tuesday was delayed eight times before eventually leaving. Texas was not feelings very inviting this week 😂 We have 3 years before we have to go back. Hopefully our memories will be fuzzed by time for that 😉
Oh and my family thought I was crazy for nerding out over a advertisement for New Braunfels, hahaha. They just don’t understand the my BDH heart!
The driveway looks so nice!
That driveway looks amazing, what a find!!!!!
OMG!! Gobsmacked!
I’m a landscape designer and I’ve NEVER heard of someone burying a concrete driveway under DG. Nobody, NOBODY, would think that’s a good idea… well, maybe people who think French doors are what define a chateau. No wonder the driveway was such a an awful mess! OMG, the drainage alone is giving me the heebie-jeebies.
Congratulations on finding the equivalent of a Roman treasure hoard buried in your mud!
At this point I’ll put in my obligatory plug for native plants to replace that hedge. Choose plants that are hardy to the next warmer, dryer hardiness zone, and they’ll be likely to thrive in your area despite water restrictions and increasing summer temps.
Don’t how long you monitor new comments on older posts, but in case you do… Fraizer’s Ornamental and Architectural Concrete in Hempstead, TX. If a large concrete bulldog exists, it will be there.
Looking lovely