The cement crew finished up half the driveway last night. The tool you see this guy using is called a joiner. It has a slot in the center that grooves the cement while the top of the tool smooths the joint. We discovered a clean-out for the sewer line below the former brick patio, which is why you see a hole. They placed a bucket shaped object over the clean-out to protect it and will put a grate on top when it is finished. It's a good thing I asked them to investigate what I thought was a French drain.
You can see the grate cover in this photo. The cement is still wet. You can also see my beautiful tankless water heater (it's got a red symbol on it for Rheem), just in case you were wondering what a tankless water heater looks like. I'm going to paint the back deck blue to match the other deck and gazebo for the jacuzzi. I don't really like red surfaces. Blue is much more calming.
I shot this photo at 10:30 this morning, which is why the light has shadows. This is the long stretch of the driveway. The guy is smoothing out the edges. One of the handy aspects of using a contractor my neighbor recommended is if the crew messed up his sprinkler heads, which run along that edge of the driveway, my neighbor knows who to call. :)
Here you can see the entire run of the driveway, back to the garage. They are still cutting in the grooves and smoothing out the cement. It has not yet been broom brushed. It's such a pretty color wet, don't you think? When it dries, it will be white. One of my other neighbors painted her driveway gray. It looks nice, for about six months. It now needs repainting. Why she didn't ask for the cement to be colored is beyond me. For me, though, plain o' white cement is just fine.
All the homes in Land Park on my street were built between 1948 and 1950. Everybody has hardwood floors. The neighborhood was once a tract of two-bedroom, one-bath homes, but over the years, almost everyone has added a couple extra bedrooms and another bath. A few built a second-floor addition, but none of those are next door to me, thank goodness.
Obligatory cat photo. This is Brandon. He's a Somali and turned 17 in July. He spends most of his time in a pen in my family room because he has kidney disease. He was so happy to sit in a chair outside that he spent a good 30 minutes rubbing on it. Sometimes, I let him sit outside in the sun when I'm around to supervise. He has arthritis, too, so it's not like he's able to run off anywhere.
I'll post more photos tomorrow when the driveway job is completed.
Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub
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