We Paved Our Street/Driveway

The vibrating roller is finishing off our new driveway/private street. That is our gray house to the right. No more dodging potholes to get into our garage.

The crew spent much more time prepping the base - the two layers of paving went very fast.

We own out to the middle of the street. Mike and Nancy Murphy own the other half here. Way down the end - you can see Carol and Fred Sanfilippo's new green house. Even though none of the street is officially on their property - they were the first to pay their share. Fred sat as a sentinel on his porch and to make sure everything went well. No one messes with Fred.

Ever since we moved to the corner of Seminole Drive and MorBihan Street 8 years ago - the private drive was in dire need of repair. Since is it a private road - I was under the impression that the 6 people that lived on it were "tenants in common." I thought we owned it as a group. It seemed impossible to get all 6 residents to agree on anything about the street. The pot holes got bigger and bigger because everyone could not agree on what to do.

After a little research - I found out that it was not owned by the group - each resident owned the street on their land - we just granted an easement of passage to the other residents. Since a majority of the residents wanted something done - we decided to take hold and do the job.

We got bids - interviewed contractors - worked a few deals - had meetings - took down some trees. On December 30th - we had a new street. And it is a beauty.

The Private Driveway/Street is about 20 feet wide and about 500 feet long. North Florida Asphalt gave us a nice discount from their bid. They started at 8 AM and were done at 2 PM. 8 men and about 8 pieces of equipment did a most professional job. We had bargained for 1.5 inches - but they generously laid down two layers that added up to well over 2 inches. Everything was leveled - cleaned - wet tarred - scraped - and paved - twice. All edges were feathered - all holes filled in with clean fill.

I paid the full price of $8000 - and almost all of the residents agreed to pay their fair share. Even though much of the street is on my property - they realized that they drove on it more than I did. We are very very happy with all of the co-operation.

We had a street party last night at our house. The street project has made a new bond among the neighbors on MorBihan Street.

A special thank you to David Pitcher - our friend across the street. Even though he does not live on MorBihan - he generously allowed all the residents to park in has backyard so their cars would not be trapped in the cul de sac.

I am sure this street will outlive all of us. The meager 1 inch layer street had survived 30 years - this one and the neighborhood spirit will last forever :-)