When my mother moved into her house about ten years ago, there was a stone walkway that lead up to the front door. Though I thought it looked good near the driveway, it was torn up quite a bit near the entrance to the house. My mom didn’t know if she should try to save it or if she should rip it up and go with concrete. There was a good chance someone would trip and get hurt, but I asked her to save it and try to fix it before she gave up on it.
My husband ended up working on the stone walkway for her. Because he works in construction he can often get really good deals on building supplies, and he went somewhere and got the stone he needed. He studied the stone walkway as it was before he went to get new stone, because some of it could be used again. There were other pieces that were shattered that had to be removed, but about half of the stone was good. He got some that matched pretty closely, and most of it was a reddish pink color.
It didn’t take him only a few weekends to work on the stone walkway for my mom. He couldn’t take off of work to do it, but he said doing it on the weekend for them was not a problem. My mom and step dad were going to leave that for last, as the stone walkway was the least of their problems. They had bought the house with the knowledge that it would need some work, but once they got started it need more work than they had realized. Had they tackled the walkway on their own I fear it may have never got done. The roof and the windows alone took quite awhile, and there was more to do after that.
After the stone walkway was finished, my mom thanked me for talking her into saving it. It was really great, and she said she wanted to plant some flowers along the edge of it. She ended up planting some plant that has green and red leaves, and they really looked good with the reddish colored stones. Everyone who came to see their new house once they got most of the work done said they loved the stone walkway, and it truly did add something to the house.
|
