I never knew I could get so excited about dirt, rocks and wood. yet here I am writing a post all about them. since we narrowed in on the general idea for the barn of our dreams next, we needed a driveway and pad to start to bring it into reality.
the driveway was installed in early May 2024 when Bob was traveling which worked out perfectly. he's a thinker and can get a little anxious about the things that can go wrong, so it was great that I was able to oversee the project and answer questions. then when he got back home he could appreciate a fully finished driveway and barn pad and not have to think about anything. I loved being able to do that for him.
forced changes to our plans
originally, we wanted the drive way to go straight back from the road to the barn but it turns out that there's rules that prevented that from being possible. since we were wanting to cut through a hill close to the road it was causing issues of being able to see traffic as we would be pulling out of our driveway. so per the county, we had to move our driveway entrance quite a bit west of where we wanted it.
at first we were frustrated because now the driveway was going to be a decent amount longer which translates into a decent amount more money...who wants to spend thousands on rocks and dirt. ugh. plus the driveway now was going to have to cut through our property, chopping up our beautiful land. I'm glad we didn't get our panties too much in a ruffle because it turned out better than I was originally invisioning.
still prioritized aesthetics with a driveway
I met with a few different excavators getting quotes and I knew I had found my person when she, yes a female excavator 🫶🏻, talked about her zodiac sign causing her to be attentive to detail and mentioned how important asthetics are to her. sold. where do I sign.
although this is 'just a driveway' the layout of it was super important to me. I didn't want any straight shots yet I didn't want it to be so curvy we would be frustrated pulling trailers or go off of it when it was covered with snow. I wanted the driveway to enhance the curves of the land not take away from it. and we totally nailed it.
a little micro adventure
the way it curves just as it comes off the road makes it difficult to see where its going which gives a bit of mystery. that's actually a landscape design principle, to have things hinted at or hidden to stem curiousity and keep it interesting. I didn't plan for this initially and I'm so glad we have it now because it definitely adds a layer of intrigue. when we drive on it, the subtle, slow curves make it feel like a little micro adventure to get back to the barn. silly? maybe. but it makes me so happy.
trusses arrived
we know things are getting closer to the fun stuff when we drove past our property one day and saw our trusses had arrived!!
its starting to feel real as we can see how wide the barn will be and have some tangible things to look at instead of lines on paper. next up is making decisions on window and doors, getting more clear on the hangout space and watching the posts and framing start to happen. I might just tent it up on our property so I won't miss a thing as it all comes together.
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