Fun with Sidewalk Repair

It took AJW several days longer than anticipated to perform the sidewalk and driveway repairs outside of our home.  It was a real mess.  But I didn't mind the delay much at all.  My son and I had a ton of fun playing in the exposed dirt that had been under the sidewalk and driveway.  We played with toy trucks and bulldozers, and my son wore a yellow hard had.  It was awesome.

Fixing the Driveway -- "During"

Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

Fixing the Driveway -- "Before"

As AJW Construction began working, I took some "before" pictures.  You can also see the white spray paint markers made by the inspector.

Sausalito Arts Festival

The 59th Annual Sausalito Arts Festival is this Labor Day weekend (September 3, 4, and 5, 2011).  Hours are Saturday and Sunday 10-6 and Monday 10-5.

Artists from all over the country participate in this fantastic art festival.  Several of the artists at the festival are displaying amazing Arts & Crafts style work.  Some great examples:

"Fine Clocks in the Craftsman Tradition" by woodworker Gary Knapp.  He's from Montana and he makes beautiful Craftsman clocks, which we think would look great in any house.  He has some of his work online at Cats Eye Craftsman.

Seaton Wood Design, out of Ojai, California, has beautiful fine wooden boxes on display.

Andrew Butler Photography out of Santa Cruz, California, takes beautiful travel images and frames them with character.

Steven White Woodworking out of Bishop, California, offers fine Craftsman-style tables, chairs, benches, etc.

Photographer Mark MacKinnon is out of Millbrook, New York, and his studio is called thephotographersplace.  Lots of beautiful landscape photography.

Again, these are just a few examples.  Lots to see and do at this festival this year!

Fixing the Driveway -- Not Looking A Gift Horse in the Mouth

The day the contractors (AJW) showed up, they started work fast.  Basically they showed up with a lot of large equipment very early in the morning.  Only then did they knock on the door to say they were going to rip apart our driveway and wouldn't be able to use it during the week.  We ought to move our cars.

This was another situation where I could imagine someone getting REALLY po'ed with the contractors and the City.  Didn't get any prior notice.  Didn't get any opportunity to say we agree or disagree.  Just told to move our cars.

Under the circumstances -- and lucky for the City -- we weren't angry at all.  We were really psyched about getting the driveway fixed.  I moved our car out of the driveway fast and parked up the street.  Didn't think about it when it took over two weeks for them to fix the driveway, instead of the initial four days that they had said we wouldn't have use of it.

I would suggest that the City try to do a bit better in terms of at least notifying residents about stuff like this though...