Hardscaping

Our driveway and front walk were terrible before we started construction, and the construction process made everything much worse. Our front walk ended up being completely demolished and our driveway, such as it was, suffered a lot of damage. We scraped up some money from somewhere to get some new hardscaping, and everything looks so much better now. At the same time the concrete guys installed the walkway back to the casita.

We had some challenges. Jake doesn't like the look of plain concrete, but we really couldn't afford pavers at nearly twice the cost of concrete. We compromised on the driveway by having the concrete guys put pebbles in the concrete to give it a different look. You can see how it looks in the picture below. I have to say, I am very excited about having a real driveway, with no more puddles and gravel getting everywhere.


For the front walk, we decided to do squares instead of a straight sidewalk. We hope to eventually put tile on the front porch and walkway, so that will cover up the concrete. I like having the squares instead of all sidewalk -- I like the look of the plants softening the edge of the concrete. Of course, at the moment we are pretty far away from planting! You can see the front walk on the picture at the top of the post.

For the walkway in the back, we decided to do something even more different. We didn't want a straight, solid sidewalk, since it would make the casita look farther away. We didn't want to curve the walkway because no one walks a curve -- everyone would just cut through and walk straight off the walkway. We toyed with stepping stone arrangements and came up with the pattern below. By alternating squares and rectangles and offsetting them, it gives a curved impression with a straight path down the middle. It is more interesting than practical, since the distance between the concrete pads ended up being a little too far, but I like the visual effect. We're still working on a landscaping plan -- Jake's friend Dan helped us get a good idea of what we want to do where. Looking down the path to the casita, I think most of the space between the path and the fence will end up being a planting bed.