Our driveway is sealed! Hooray! We picked perhaps the hottest day of the year so far to do it (not hooray), but it's done! Might have just a touch of heat exhaustion (ick), but am drinking water and not moving as much as possible (easier now that Lewis has gone to bed). Headache, nausea, chills, and lightheadedness seem to have passed, thank goodness. I got a lot of sun, too, even though I reapplied sunscreen. Tomorrow will definitely be an indoors day.
We've been going out in the evenings the past few months to fill cracks, smooth edges and rough spots, and fill holes. We finally saw that the weather was going to be okay for this weekend (okay as in no rain, NOT okay as in so freaking hot). We decided to go ahead and do it since the school's parking lot across the street would be empty over the long weekend AND also since we'll be out of town the next 3 weekends after this one.
Kevin's parents came over early this morning to take Lewis to breakfast and out and about (with an unexpected stop at Home Depot for us for more supplies--thanks, guys!), so we got started around 8am. It took a little while to get used to working with the sealant and to get a good system going, but we eventually figured out what worked and knocked it out!
A few before shots:
Kevin, the Really-Excited-to-be-Sealing-the-Driveway Photobomber
That's better. :)
Looking pretty crappy!
SO close!
We finished up around 12:30 after running out of supplies with literally less than 20 square feet remaining. I tried to stretch it out, but this last section had quite a lot of rough spots, and we just couldn't scrape enough together to finish. All we had left to do is what is visible above, plus most of that little section to the right of the garage. Kevin went ahead and ran out during naptime to get one last bucket (so 8 in total) to finish, and we finished this afternoon (the bare section above and a little bit of touch-ups).
After:
Finished!
Hooray for home improvement!
It's so pretty--I don't want to drive on it and muck it up!
We can walk it now, but we're supposed to wait 24 hours to drive on it (though it was probably hot enough today to dry it sufficiently).
Oh, and don't forget about Peter!
This is a before/after of Peter's paw print that he snuck in this week after my final patching session--there was another that I caught and was able to patch over, but I missed this one (and used up the materials, so whoops!). I thought the sealer might fill it in a little or make it less obvious, but it's still pretty clearly a paw print. Good ol' Peter Dink. Fitting, since he loves to lay out on the scorching hot driveway (silly dog).
Happy Memorial Day to all!
Looks like a great job! it looks so nice but I don't like that you got heat exhaustion. That's dangerous! Glad you are feeling better. By the way, I LOVE that profile picture of you on this blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks--that was in Las Vegas right before I got pregnant with Lewis. A goal to work towards. :)
DeleteYeah, I drank tons of water and took breaks, but it was just SO hot! We missed breakfast, too, which might have made things worse. It was just at the end that I started to feel bad--I laid on the vent for the air conditioning for a long time to help cool off (thought of you) and took a cool shower. I think the sun reflecting off the driveway made it worse (the sealant was steaming towards the end). We had a good lunch and dinner and I'm feeling better now.
Dang girl, that is a good looking driveway!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Schwee. I think I'm in love! :) The dogs got to go out on it this morning and tracked muddy footprints all over it, so the honeymoon is over. Oh well--still a humongous improvement!
DeleteLooks awesome. I might have to hit you up for details in the future (when my to-do list gets shorter and Craig doesn't threaten to move out if I put anything else on it :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you! :) It wasn't too bad once we got the hang of it. I'd love to share what we learned--just let me know when! :)
DeleteMost importantly, I would wait until nearer the 'must be above 60 degrees' end of the acceptable temperature range instead of this time of year (so like spring or fall). That should buy Craig some time. :)
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