12 Sep, 2012
Reno post #39 – bookshelves, and again about the driveway
Posted by andrea tomkins in: Home/reno
We are in the home stretch now and I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I’m heading out to buy doorknobs today. Seriously. This is what my life is like at the moment, but I realize that I’m better qualified to buy doorknobs than bang together a new bookcase.
Speaking of which, here is My Dream Come True, coming to life:
I’ve always wanted a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, and here it is. I still can’t believe it. The spaces on the far right are very deep. Those will be reserved for board game storage although I’m considering giving the bottom right one over to Piper to use as a wee dog house. :)
Yesterday I went into my reno archives and read some of my older reno posts. We’ve come so far. For example, the mudroom. At first I was determined to have Marmoleum floors. Then we considered vinyl. Then we found a gorgeous honed travertine tile. Then we found out we’d need to have a subfloor installed if we wanted to move forward with the travertine. And so then we went to porcelain instead (which we probably should have chosen in the first place) and found the perfect tile at Lowes for only $1.68/square foot. (You can get a peek at that here.) So that part of the flooring is getting finished today, which is a relief because we’ve spent an incredible amount of time talking/planning/shopping.
At the moment I’m fretting about landscaping, namely the driveway and side walkway and it’s taking up quite a bit of my brain. I’ve written about my personal conundrum with driveways before. Personally I’d like a grass driveway (there’s a very good post about it here) and it’s been done in Ottawa before but A Certain Someone does not agree with me. (Just think how much water we’d stop from filling the sewers if everyone had a grass driveway!) Sadly, one can probably assume those special grid-like tiles that go under the grass are expensive.
Thus I find myself at a driveway-related crossroads, and it all needs to be figured out fairly quickly.
- We only have one car and the driveway should comfortably host one car but also a second one if we have visitors.
- Interlock is out of our budget.
- I kind of hate black asphalt. It looks so harsh to me.
- Fine gravel or crushed brick might work. At least it looks more natural, but it might not work well in our winters.
Here’s a sketch of what the area looks like. I think I’m going to need to suck it up and have to pour that asphalt over the parking pad and up to the side-entrace steps. Maybe the right side of that part of the driveway (leading to the backyard) can consist of a pea gravel path and lots of planters? Gah. I don’t know. Got any good ideas to toss my way?
