Today, I get my driveway back!

After a two month wait we were finally given access to our driveway again. It has been such a mess around here, not to mention the ever so irritating sounds coming from the tonka trucks 25 feet outside my front door.

Peering out from the upstairs bedroom as they lay 4'x7' culvert deep under the road

Our section took a bit longer to pass due to the transition from 6'x8' foot culverts to (2) parallel 4'x7' culverts.

I really had no idea what to expect when the procession of tonka trucks and orange vested workers arrived to our section of the road. While they approach I could here what was going on down the road, but I just had no idea what it all really entailed.

Our yard became a temporary staging area for the culverts, no doubt because the front of our house still looked like a construction zone without any grass installed yet.

...Our section of road proved to be more complicated then previous sections. Once they got in front of our house they hit a deep shelf of limestone bedrock, thus causing them to bring in the big guns. I'm serious, my front yard looked like a scene from transformers. It was amusing for a while until one day while reading in the back bedroom I started to feel a series of rumbles and shakes. Much to my dismay the 21 foot concrete piers that anchor our home were feeling the reverberation from the rock blasting going on in the street. My thoughts began to fall back to the days of the old Bull Creek house. The constant 'breathing' we lived with that eventually led to us wedging a kitchen chair up against the front door as our 'vintage security device'. It seems like a novelty now but I couldn't help but worry that with all the rock blasting going on outside that I would regret selling that chair in last years yard sale. So the procession of equipment and hardhats has now moved northward. I've been waiting for signs of damage in our new home and much to my dismay I did find some. We have a hairline crack in our guest bathroom and one of the bedroom doors is sticking pretty badly. Interesting enough when I shared my discoveries with the City of Austin Project Manager he said, "We have a legal department in place to take your claims". I was quite shocked when he so flippantly replied with that. I guess that means Im up for a battle with the city.  ... I just really hope those two little details are not signs of a bigger problem???


So on the brighter side of things this storm drain installment project IS a really good thing. With the littlest bit of rain our street would flood from curb to curb and on larger rain falls would flood into our yard about 2 feet. The City says the project should be wrapped up by Jan 2012. I just hope my claim for damages doesn't last longer than that!

May 2011. A 20 minute rainstorm caused this.

In the meantime, I don't have to lug my groceries from 3 houses down any longer. Cheers to that!