Pouring a New Driveway

So we got a new driveway. Let me elaborate.

Our house we love, our driveway we hate. This piece of junk has been a bumpy, broken hot mess since the day we moved in 5 years ago. It was probably original to the house, thin and narrow, complete with ribbon of gravel and weeds up the middle.

Here's the thing - driveways (i.e. concrete) are not cheap. And our driveway is 100 feet long - and that's longer than home plate to first base. So we had to save up for this one - and thankfully, we are lucky enough to have a generous neighbor to split the cost since the driveway is shared (yay).

We reached out to two contractors who've done work in neighborhood. This really is the only way we go about finding contractors for house work. Friends or neighbors who've had good experience with someone - anything else is just too risky in our opinion when finding help. Ultimately, one was about twice as much as the other, we opted for the cheaper, and he assured us he'd build the driveway to last us for decades (rebar, good concrete, gravel, pinning, etc).

So here goes the progress - from original driveway, to clearing it out and repouring.

Old driveway with grass ribbon.

View from front of yard looking towards garage.

The weeds were such a pain in the butt to manage.

Old driveway removed, day one complete.

Full view of driveway with no concrete.

Here comes the big truck.

Will it fit? Just barely.

Here's the view from inside the kitchen - scary.

Fence temporarily removed, concrete still drying. They splattered on the garage :(

View from the front, end of day two.

View from street, no cars for almost a week.

Voila - new driveway 2 days later - Wrigley breaking it in.

Driveway terminates into our house since it's so close already.

So after a few months of enjoying the driveway - we can say that best part of a new driveway is that you don't notice it. We like how the house feels complete from the outside. The "sore thumb" factor was really taking away from the overall house, and now we just don't even think about it.

What do you think? Let us know if you have any questions about the project!

- Chris and Becca

Our Fireplace Mantel Remodel

With three weeks off this Christmas break, I decided to update our mantel with some additional woodwork. We've been meaning to tackle this for a while, and a cold winter break served as the perfect motivation to get started.

This is what our fireplace looked like originally. Lots of brick, not much visual interest or style in my opinion.

Here was my initial idea for the design and future tilework.

A little more design tweaks with regards to trimwork and future fire source. Planning on red oak to match the top part, and stain it all chocolatey brown.

Notching inside face of wood to make room for bricks at bottom of fireplace. The bricks stuck out 1/2'' at the bottom, and I'd rather notch the wood than grind the brick.

Chisel knocks out the wood.

Sanded smooth, and fits.

Placed them over the bricks to confirm fit. I was able to find some nice 1 x 10" red oak that had an interesting grain pattern for the dominant leg/column pieces.

Wood on sides of fireplace needed special fitting to work around baseboards. I used a trim profile tool to trace the profile, and a jigsaw to cut it out. This was a pain in the butt, but working around existing trimwork is a skill I'm having to learn as a remodeler. I think getting a multi-tool would make my life easier.

Adding cross piece and more test fitting. I used tongue and groove joinery to make the pieces fit together.

Panel boards added for final test. Plus Jeopardy.

Stain added, pretty happy with overall look.

Next up, tile work.

How To Make A DIY Outdoor Zinc Table

$250 homemade zinc table.

With a new deck, B quickly started designing ideas for filling the space. First on the wish list was an outdoor table. Being someone who likes low maintenance solutions, I told her to find a solution that uses metal instead of wood for the tabletop.

We landed on copper initially, but it was too expensive and I'd worry too much about it being stolen. Second in line was zinc - rustproof and easy to age with the right chemicals.

We didn't want to break the bank with a high end purchase, so we opted to try and make something on our own instead of something like this that costs upwards of $1k. I've never made a big table before, so I did a little research and reverse engineered the table in our dining room for ideas.

Below is the photo documentation of my process, enjoy!

Big heavy door I found at Restore, only $10! I'm marking where I want my legs to go (2.5" from outer edge).

The door was laminated in walnut - hard not to stain it and use it inside somewhere.

Big sheet of zinc, probably weighed 50lbs.

This sheet had some dings in it, so they took off $75 dollars.

Basically, you figure out where your legs go, and build supports to hold the legs.

The 45º piece secure the trim work and lets you bolt the legs to the table.

Notching the legs 3.5" so it can butt up to the 45º wood support

Bolted trim to table leg.

You can see how it comes together here.

Now for the flip. Good proportions between table thickness and legs and trim work.

Detail of uncovered table. This could be done if it was for inside.

Adding construction adhesive to the table with adhesive spreader.

Laying the table down after glue.

Then put everything heavy in the house on top.

Flipped the table, started bending with mallet and then started making cuts with snips

Lots of hammering and patience.

45º cuts to let the corners play nicely.

Nailed the zinc to the table.

Added some foil tape to remove the sharpness under the table. Finger protection.

Took the table outside and screwed back on the legs. Next time I would mark which leg goes where so I don't have to guess. I soldered the corner joints with some basic tin solder and grinded them smooth.

We used a mallet and pounded on the table top for a nice texture. Probably hammered for a few hours for a look we were happy with.

Now the fun part, we misted on some copper sulfate and got this cool patina. Doesn't take a lot of copper sulfate for good results. If you put on too much, you can scrub it clean with fine steel wool.

The patina takes it to a new level.

Still shiny at the right angle.

Project Costs:

Tabletop: 7' x 3' x 1.5" Solid core door from Habitat Restore ($10)

Legs = 30" Cedar 4" x 4" posts from Lowes ($30)

Trim work = 1" x 4" cedar planks from Lowes ($15)

Zinc Sheet Metal = 9' x 4' from Rotometals ($120)

Liquid Nails = 6 tubes ($25) from Lowes

Bolts and Nails = 8 - 4" bolts, galvanized box nails ($10) from Lowes

Copper Sulfate = 1 lb from Amazon.com ($5)