Thanks. When it is all done the extra touches like the large cupola and the cedar brackets (there are 8 more smaller ones still to mount) and special order green trim, soffits, and gutters will have added about $3,500 to the total cost. More than I wanted to spend but I agree it looks real nice and as another forum member said in a different post ...."...do it once and only cry once....instead of doing something over later at an even higher expense."
As for the driveway, two things: first is that in front of the new section with double doors the driveway is only about 14' wide which means I need to widen it so a car can turn and pull/back in. The plan here is to maintain as much of the grassy front lawn area look by using those commercial grade "egg crate" sort of pads that you embed in the sandy soil and grass grows through them. These are iften used in auxiliary parking lots and very very often along the NC shore in the Outerbanks for driveways on homes where there is strict code on permanent lot coverage. These dont count as grass grows through them.
Second, as to the need to build up a slope to the slab, its only about 7" at the highest. This will be done once the spring comes and I get the asphalt guy in. As you can imagine I have a few edge patches to make too along the 700' long driveway not really designed for all the wideload and heavy equipment we've had rolling up and down.
As for the driveway, two things: first is that in front of the new section with double doors the driveway is only about 14' wide which means I need to widen it so a car can turn and pull/back in. The plan here is to maintain as much of the grassy front lawn area look by using those commercial grade "egg crate" sort of pads that you embed in the sandy soil and grass grows through them. These are iften used in auxiliary parking lots and very very often along the NC shore in the Outerbanks for driveways on homes where there is strict code on permanent lot coverage. These dont count as grass grows through them.
Second, as to the need to build up a slope to the slab, its only about 7" at the highest. This will be done once the spring comes and I get the asphalt guy in. As you can imagine I have a few edge patches to make too along the 700' long driveway not really designed for all the wideload and heavy equipment we've had rolling up and down.
