Friday, July 2, 2010

Home Improvement

Firstly, I want to thank all of you who wished me luck on the tarring of the drive way. I have learned many things while working on this job. Perhaps I should say re-learned. I know all of these things, yet somehow I seem to block them from my mind.

Here is a list of what I re-learned.

1.) You never buy enough "stuff" for the project
2.) It always takes longer to complete the project than you estimated
3.) It is always a good idea to read all of the instructions
4.) The money you saved by doing the job yourself does not cover the Dr. bills or the cost for the massive amounts of Ibuprofen you need to take
5.) It is probably not a good idea to work on the project with your "better half" They somehow quit being the "better" part of the whole and just piss you off.
6.) At the end of the project, although you are proud of yourself for a job well done, you realize you should have just hired a professional.

I know there are some of you working on (or have worked on) home improvement projects (Mrs. P, I know you are!!), any other home improvement wisdom to add to my list?



Some of this area was done yesterday. The dark part is the new protective coating. (I am sure you figured this out) I had to trim the grass at the edges, sweep it, blow it with the blowy thingie, wash it down, keep it damp and then put the black stuff on it. I also got black stuff on me, my clothes and my shoes! I washed off, the rest of the items are now my "tarring" clothes.



In this photo, I tried to show some more of what I accomplished today.



Here is some of what I have to do in the upcoming days. Yes, all the way down there! The driveway is downhill and therefore it is hard to see where the end is. Look for the road that runs perpendicular to my drive way.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

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4 comments:

Linda said...

Ugh
What a back breaking job!! My Dh does ours, himself!! Thank God he's a handy guy, and seems to know how to do practically everything.
He's exceptionally neat, but still gets that stuff on his clothes. No avoiding that, I think.
Your driveway makes it look like you live in a paradise.
Linda

Marg said...

How many cans of that stuff are you going to have to go through? Wow your driveway looks amazing and you weren't exaggerating with the length of the driveway were you! Good luck with the rest of it.

Shay said...

The only piece of advice I can add Cynthia is DONT DO IT!!!!!!!

Our ceilings are coming out today and it's going to be awful. And you have the longest driveway I have ever seen. Havent you people ever heard of concrete ? Awesome stuff for driveways.

Well done on tackling this job youself - I had to laugh when I read your bit about your better half, and the changes home improvements make in the way you view them. I feel that way about Mr. P at the moment.

Good Luck on finishing your driveway.

Michelle said...

Wow! I've never heard of anyone tarring her own driveway. I am impressed. It looks great!

My DIY project? We're coming up on the 2nd year of the DIY tiling darn near the whole house job. Yes, we're glad we did it. It looks great, and that is rewarding. However, I never imagined how labor intensive some of the steps are. I have "cement mixing" clothes, which will go in the trash eventually.