curb appeal

BIG weekend. We did a little driveway makeover on what is apparently called a "ribbon driveway" where it is just two strips of concrete that you drive on and then grass inbetween. Well our grass wasn't looking too good and it was hard to mow and keep looking nice so we wanted something other than grass. If you walk around the neighborhood it's fun to see all the different ways people have filled in between the concrete. Most people just fill it in with concrete or some form of pavers. We decided we wanted gravel; I don't remember why but it is something we can do ourselves and I like the way it looks. Unfortunately I'm not the best blogger and didn't take any true before shots so all I could find is this one taken from the bathroom window during our home inspection:

So you can see the grass in between the concrete there, looking a little ragged. The next shots were taken Saturday morning and you can see all the digging Jeff had already done:

We had also already sprayed all the grass with Roundup so it has been a nice brown color for awhile. And by we I mean, Jeff's dad did it when he was here a few weeks ago. Thanks Bill! And now get ready for the after:

Oh and if you notice on the left of the picture you can see that we aren't actually done yet; there is still a whole strip left to dig up. But let's not think about that right now. This took us three trips to Home Depot and 53 bags of rocks. My favorite part is the slate stepping stones that we found while digging up the backyard and brought up to the front. There are still have 5 big ones left for the left side too.

And then because it was a perfect, beautiful fall weekend and I was so excited about how much better it was all looking, I kept digging. I (with Jeff's help) dug out all the grass under those front bushes so we could have a little bed to plant some flowers. Here's a closer shot:

Just imagine it with some flowers and mulch in there. We are pretty excited about it and can't wait to have it all done, but I'm not sure we will be able to walk or get out of bed tomorrow morning.

Oh and as an update to my week challenge: light dimmers are still not installed. I didn't get home from work until about 8:30 Thursday night so it just wasn't going to happen. This homeowner stuff is a lot of work and like Jeff said, it's a good thing we don't have a whole house!