House Construction - The Breezeway

Sunday, August 11, 2019

A construction project not for the DIYer, involving excavators, dump trucks, sledgehammers, and all the good stuff.

I suppose we could consider this an extension of the 'outdoor makeover' that would include the garden as well. But the overgrown garden isn't the reason our house was on the market for over 6 months. This mess of a breezeway (and the frightening wallpaper) likely was. Biggest house project now complete! Now we've just gotta scrub the concrete flecks off the house walls (or get the peeling exterior painted).

The front patio looks to have sunken a good 10" or so since the construction of the house. So the guys cleared out the pavers and put them in my garden. Took out a tiny stone wall, the electrical for a non-existent lamp post, and leveled the area. The concrete guys cut two holes into the breezeway connecting the garage to the house, filled that with concrete and then did stamped concrete in the front and back in a dark grey-ish color.





The rear patio had less of a sinking problem, but all the stones were coming up on their own. So the whole shebang went through the same process as the front.



We also decided to get the garage ramps replaced, since they were essentially lift-off ramps. This has made it considerably less likely for us to scrape the bottom of the car as we enter/exit. Pretty handy.




The stamped concrete is not as cute as the original slate stones, but it also cost about 1/5 the price of replacing with stone. The concrete works and is fairly neutral, so it all works out!