More on the Driveway Changes

The posting on Friday (http://www.winjama.net/2017/04/well-driveways-been-going-through-some.html)occurred on Thursday. Friday was a day of inactivity for several reasons, none of which I'll go into. After that, we had pretty much given up hope of having anything done till Tuesday, the next available work day country-wide.

Imagine our surprise, on Saturday, about 9:00 AM, the dogs started barking, like they're supposed to do whenever someone is near one of the gates. I looked out and saw the operator. I quickly put the dogs in their pen (I always tell them it's time for them to go to work when that happens), and opened the gate for him.

As he was replacing the tire on the Bobcat, he apologized for not showing up on Friday, but his new two-week old baby boy had been sick with reflux problems - Dianna said it was common with newborns. I told him it wasn't his fault, but his boss's for not keeping me informed.

Anyway, we put that behind us, and he began by moving the rest of half of the layered concrete near the septic tank.

Half of the Concrete Pad Gone

I only had him move half of the layered concrete pad, where the house construction crew had mixed a lot of their concrete for the house.

Half of the pad, I had left because I was afraid that, moving it by machine, it might damage the piping leading to the Rotoplas septic tank. That will be better taken care of by hand and carefully.

Pile of Scrap Concrete

Here's where most of the scrap concrete ended up, by the second, smaller palapa. One day, it will be replaced by a concrete block shed, with the scrap concrete going into its base. The shed will house all the yard chemicals, paint, tools, and the mower.

Scrap Concrete and Gravel

Most of the gravel will probably end up in the driveway roadbed, but, I'm sure a good bit will be used to fill cave-ins, which we fairly often seem to develop small ones around the place.

That's just one facet of the paradise tax you have to pay if you live near the coast and have a limestone base underfoot. You get used to it. It's not as scary as some of the cave-ins that they have in Florida and other places. Now those would be scary.

That done, he began knocking down the big pile of dirt, grass, and other debris up near the gate.

The Big Pile is Long Gone

In this photo, you can see it's already starting to look normal. A little bit of time for the grass to die and decay and for some rain to settle the soil, and it will look like it's always been there.

What Pile? It's Always Like This

From this view, it really is looking natural.

In short order that all was done. I thanked him, wished him luck with his baby, and paid for the work done. It really looks nice.

I forgot to take photos during the final stages of the project, but here's a few more so you can see the results.

Part of the New Driveway

Here's the driveway from the cut-off by the gate. It's looking almost finished, except for the odd piles here and there.

The Parking Palapa and Side Route

This shot shows how we'll now be driving into the palapa. It's a lot easier this way. We don't have to back up and swing in, which was pretty much the rule coming in the other way.

The side route allows vehicles a way out when both the parking spaces under the palapa are taken. We had to move a couple mature plants and only one other plant bought the farm in the transition.

The next step is to finish removing the curbing by the entrance to the cut-off by the gate. It was necessary to do it by hand as both well-water, storm water runoff, and electricity are run under the curbing. Then comes at least a couple big loads of chippings, the small easily compacted gravel that always looks so good.

After that, we'll be adding some six-inch high curbing around the driveway and plantings. then it'll be done, well, after we add some solar yard lighting around the drive. Most of this is like a year or so down the road, I think.