The New Retaining Wall and a Wider Driveway

Since we returned from Port Townsend (a few final pictures below), we've been home, watching our driveway widening project finish up.

Sunrise from Port Hudson.

Driftwood fort at sunrise.

Walking in town; I like the sentiment.

A last look at a still Hood Canal from the bridge.

The project began in late May; we came home early from our RV trip to the southwest to be here for the construction. The city gave us a new sewer main in a better location (down the center of the street), and then had to connect all or our side sewers to the new main. This part of the neighborhood has all the houses on a hill above the street, so each connection required a canyon of a trench between houses to get to the side sewer. Our house was the most difficult for the city contractor, but they did good work and were happy to let us put the side yard back in a different way. If they city had not dug out the old side yard, I'm not sure we would have widened our driveway. It took almost six months from the start of the dig to get it finished, and it was expensive. At least we didn't have to pay for the initial work by the city, so it did cost less than if we had done the entire project ourselves.

The wall forms are ready

Pouring the concrete retaining wall.

More concrete. That little trailer is the concrete pump.

Forms removed!

Back fill. They saved our original dirt on another local site.

Pushing more dirt.

The final slab. Our contractor broke his toe (not at our house).

 

Finished.

Curing.

It seems amazing now that it's finished!

Our neighbor is also happy with how the project turned out. I feel so fortunate that we have such a good relationship with our neighbor. We made sure to get his input throughout the whole thing, and he was super accommodating about how the footing for the wall is actually on his property. We did a nice final grading of the side yard after it was filled with dirt, so any water will drain properly away from our houses. Water management is very important in a place where it rains for nine months of the year!

We are still waiting to have the old concrete pressure washed so it will match the new concrete, but we are super excited to get our trailer moved over to the new space. It is so nice to have such great off-street parking now. It makes the house work better for us; plus we won't have to pay to store our RV elsewhere. As a bonus, we now have a sewer connection in the driveway that we can use to empty our RV tanks. We've lived in this house since 1999; it was built in 1962. Twenty years of upgrades are now almost complete. The final change we plan is to add solar panels on the expanse of south facing roof with a house battery. We have spent twenty years working to make this house our own, finishing the basement, adding a bathroom, remodeling the kitchen, earthquake retrofit, upgrading the plumbing and electrical systems. It feels so good to know we are close to the end. Just in time to repaint the outside next year!