Tied to the Apron Strings

I apologize for the lack of blog postings recently.  We hit a snag that tied us up.

After Paver Steve came down and tore up the remaining old asphalt and made a nice, even, strong road bed,

we had a pow wow with the garden designer, Brooks Garcia, Builder Gary and William the stone mason to lay out the aprons.

Then we dug them

out and poured the concrete pads for the stone.

Paver Steve was coming in the morning to lay down the asphalt and we were making progress.

That evening we got a call that our aprons were in the easement.  Yes, they were.  The old driveway was only 10 feet wide and the total easement allowance is 20 feet to allow for creating the road bed.  There was no way to attach to the easement without encroaching.  The neighbor who was concerned wanted to have a surveyor come out and mark the easement.  So, we called off the paving.

We polled the neighbors and most of them didn’t have a problem with it as long as a fire truck could navigate the driveway in an emergency.  So, I got the firemen to come out.

The firemen came out and inspected everything and gave it a resounding thumbs up.

After the surveyor came we had a meeting with our neighbors who use the driveway.  We had Gary the Builder, Brooks the garden designer, and William the stone mason on hand to lay out the new apron and get the show on the road.

We compromised and decided to move the aprons back to the edge of the easement and pave the full 20 feet just inside the gate in order to have a turnout to let two cars pass each other at the entrance gate.  As you can see, the new aprons (marked in green paint) were to be just behind the old aprons.  Not a very dramatic change but a very expensive change.

So, out came the concrete pads.

And back came the concrete truck.

We were tied to the apron strings, but it felt like we were

tied to the whipping post…. tied to the whipping post…(everybody sing)…tied to the whipping post…

good God, my bank account’s dying….