The development of the Garage-mahal took a significant step forward yesterday. We have been attempting for almost a year to get our driveway repaved. Actually, paved would be more appropriate. Only about twenty feet of the old driveway could be called paved, the rest was gavel, rubble, dirt, or grass.

The plan was simple enough: Find a paving company that would widen the driveway by about six feet; grade it, remove the rubble, and repave it to make it level with the entrance to the garage. It is about ninety feet long on average, say sixteen feet wide. Asking around various general contractors what they thought a reasonable estimate might be, they all came up with the same range: $3,000 – $5,000.

When we got the bids in, most were between $8,000 and $10,000. I know the price of oil is driving up the cost of asphalt, but that seemed excessive. We started looking for paving companies from outside the metro area. Sure enough, their prices were about half. We selected one, signed the order, and waited. And waited. We couldn’t get the work scheduled and thought they didn’t want to do it. We called them back on the off-chance they might be interested and it turns out the problem wasn’t lack of interest, but a surly receptionist who didn’t want to schedule it. Within hours, they came back to confirm the estimate and showed up the next day to do the work.

It will be another couple of days before we can drive on it, but it’s beautiful (in an asphalt sort of way.) We should have room to park two cars at the bottom and still drive into the garage-mahal without driving on the neighbor’s driveway. Of course, there’s some extra room as well for another car …. Click the photo above to see the slideshow.