A Country Farmhouse: Our Front Steps and Walkway

I am finally getting around to posting on our front walkway and stairs. I had to dig deep in the archives to find some of the before pictures and I'm almost too tired to even write about it after seeing all the work we had to do.

This is the view of the valley below with Mt. Adams in the background.

The view from the porch.

Putting in the hardscape was definitely an huge undertaking. I personally had no idea that there was so much involved in creating features as simple as walkways.

We started with this, a few concrete stones and some old wood beams. This was our fancy front steps and walkway for about a year after we renovated the house (this photo was taken in 2009).

After much deliberation, and some math on Mike's part, we decided to create the stairs with concrete and then adhere pavers over the concrete to create a stone look.

Mike started building the stairs by creating a form for the concrete. This was a lot of work as he had to dig down fairly deep into clay soil so that the stairs had a firm concrete base.

After the concrete was poured and cured, Mike adhered the pavers to create the look of stone steps.

As we completed the stairs, it was time to build the walkway.

This involved a lot more digging into our clay soil which is like concrete when it is dry, and softens a couple inches at a time with lots of water applied to it. So this was a fair amount of hard work. I know because I attempted to help out, but gave up when I couldn't even get the shovel two inches into the ground.

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A Country Farmhouse: Our Front Steps and Walkway