The front steps were installed in June.  I did the first 4 up to the landing
with the tractor. The last 5 were installed with a hydraulic lift arm on a flatbed.
I then added the paver walkway to the driveway.  The finish coat of hot top
will come next.

As usual we are constantly working around the house. We finally paved
the driveway in November 98. We've built stonewalls, brick patio's,  cut
down too many trees and placed some concrete.  We get plenty of help too!

We began to make some external changes to the house a few years ago.  The gravel
driveway was the first victum. We were tired of the steep incline to get into the barn
and the gravel seems to find it's way into every part of the house.

First we moved the driveway up the road a little and in front of the house. While we
were at it we improved the drainage in the rear of the house by installing pipe for
both the foundation and downspouts and then backfilling it. We dropped a few trees
to increase the usable open space and had plenty of help stacking the wood.  The
dozer found a few boulders in the process.Our new plan called for improving some
of the outdoor living space without hot topping everything so we included a patio
near the porch alongside the driveway.  It was a lot of fun to build. Kathy and I
started to build the retaining wall in front of the house.

Some before and after pictures:

With new patio and paint but not pavement yet: