rockyroller
Guru
- Location
- 20 miles northwest of Boston, MA
I was out doing some grass patching in the margin between the sidewalk & street, when maybe I found a new project to work on around our old house
prior to 1966, before our house was built, the property only had 1 structure, a free standing garage with this driveway. it's way down at the far end of the property & gets little to no attention. yesterday I noticed how grass had taken over & grew into large mats that covered the broken driveway & sidewalk, limiting pedestrians freedom to walk. I didn't take a photo before I started ripping up the mats of grass. of course it was like unraveling a ball of yarn & was fun & addicting. but it was raining & hard work & I was at the end of of my short stay, so I had to give up & leave. I'll be back
I guess the best thing to do would be ask the city to rebuild the sidewalk, hire a contractor to rip up the driveway, build a curb & fill that margin w/ soil & plant grass. well that's not gonna happen ... now that the mats are gone from the sidewalk, pedestrians can now use the full width of the sidewalk, so I can just leave it alone. but I'm not good at leaving things alone
I tried just clearing the sidewalk but then saw that water wouldn't drain creating a considerable puddle for the pedestrians to navigate, so I continued clearing the slope to the street. then saw that some concrete was tipped & creating a dam of sorts, so I tried hammering it to bring in down
I'm thinking it might be nice to remove all remaining grass, cleaning out the cracks & doing some level of repair. hopefully not looking sloppy, but rather like someone cared enough to make an improvement
like everything at this old house, it's been neglected in my parents last decades, so there are many more projects in more visible areas that warrant attention. my siblings couldn't care less about stuff like this
one childhood memory of mine, was doing yard work at age 8? 10? at this exact spot, the elderly couple's grandson, from next door, was visiting & came out to play & from behind I heard someone say "Hi Lee!" I turned around to greet the kid, about my own age & asked "Why did you call me Lee?" he said "well it's printed on your pants" & pointed to my waist/hip at the back. haha, they were "Lee" jeans. I wonder where that kid is today & if he's even still alive
this concrete could have been laid as far back as 1916
the sidewalk would be much newer & possibly replaced by the city at one point. from here to the corner is actually enormous squares of slate
except where patched by the city, especially where a large tree was removed. that light section in the middle is concrete from the last cpl of decades
prior to 1966, before our house was built, the property only had 1 structure, a free standing garage with this driveway. it's way down at the far end of the property & gets little to no attention. yesterday I noticed how grass had taken over & grew into large mats that covered the broken driveway & sidewalk, limiting pedestrians freedom to walk. I didn't take a photo before I started ripping up the mats of grass. of course it was like unraveling a ball of yarn & was fun & addicting. but it was raining & hard work & I was at the end of of my short stay, so I had to give up & leave. I'll be back
I guess the best thing to do would be ask the city to rebuild the sidewalk, hire a contractor to rip up the driveway, build a curb & fill that margin w/ soil & plant grass. well that's not gonna happen ... now that the mats are gone from the sidewalk, pedestrians can now use the full width of the sidewalk, so I can just leave it alone. but I'm not good at leaving things alone
I tried just clearing the sidewalk but then saw that water wouldn't drain creating a considerable puddle for the pedestrians to navigate, so I continued clearing the slope to the street. then saw that some concrete was tipped & creating a dam of sorts, so I tried hammering it to bring in down
I'm thinking it might be nice to remove all remaining grass, cleaning out the cracks & doing some level of repair. hopefully not looking sloppy, but rather like someone cared enough to make an improvement
like everything at this old house, it's been neglected in my parents last decades, so there are many more projects in more visible areas that warrant attention. my siblings couldn't care less about stuff like this
one childhood memory of mine, was doing yard work at age 8? 10? at this exact spot, the elderly couple's grandson, from next door, was visiting & came out to play & from behind I heard someone say "Hi Lee!" I turned around to greet the kid, about my own age & asked "Why did you call me Lee?" he said "well it's printed on your pants" & pointed to my waist/hip at the back. haha, they were "Lee" jeans. I wonder where that kid is today & if he's even still alive
this concrete could have been laid as far back as 1916
the sidewalk would be much newer & possibly replaced by the city at one point. from here to the corner is actually enormous squares of slate
except where patched by the city, especially where a large tree was removed. that light section in the middle is concrete from the last cpl of decades
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