New entrance and driveway

We bought a mexite brick house from the 70s a year ago. The house needed some love and we thought we'd give it that.
We wanted to start with the driveway and entrance as it was in dire need of renovation. The tiles were mossy and cracked, weeds were growing everywhere and the pitch of the tiles was all wrong. The well was broken and rusty with a drain that had seen better days.

Now it was a matter of getting all the thoughts to fruition. We sketched and measured how we wanted it. We surfed many blogs and websites. We often got stuck on Stenbolaget's website, where we found very good pictures with inspiration and videos about how to think. Stenbolaget was the obvious choice as we also live near Sköndal. We went there and got very good help and advice on what to think about. We had a pretty clear idea of ​​what it had to cost and roughly how we wanted it to look, but they helped us develop our idea.

Now it was just a matter of driving, we thought, and calculated the time to be just over a week's work for two guys. We couldn't have been more wrong…
When we started to dig, we noticed that the house was sealed from the outside with asphalt and gold fiber. The gold fiber was so wet that water ran over it. It was just to start re-draining before we could lay new tiles.
We first had to dig and then it was time to blast away the asphalt and then plaster the wall with new plaster. Then replace the drainage pipe and insulate with new material. Not only that - there was a blockage in the stormwater well, so we had to clean it out with the help of a good high-pressure washer.
Summa summerum - plus just over a week before we could start with the original project.

The staircase that was there when we moved in 1 year ago was really in dire need of renovation. We decided to redesign it. Previously, there was a small wall next to the stairs that you always had to jump over to take the fastest way to the garage - it smoked and instead we created a large staircase at an angle. We looked long and hard at the Stenbolaget's inspiration pages and found the stairs we wanted. It was to be made with blocks of granite. We drew up the exact measurements and took them with us to Stenbolaget in Sköndal. With their expertise, we were able to solve the resulting puzzle. Many different sizes of blocks were required to create a nice staircase. We first poured a frame of concrete and reinforcing mesh. Then we "glued" the stone blocks onto this.

When we bought the house, we knew that the drain at the entrance was in need of supervision. At Stenbolaget, we had seen nice wells that felt a bit modern. We wanted these. It turned out to be a good decision. Smooth and relatively simple assembly. Works perfectly in really heavy downpours like we had this fall.
It was a nice transition with granite curbstones and decorative stone towards the existing rock.

On the right side of the garage we have a parking space for a car or as we have it now, a ping pong table.
It was really in need of a facelift, broken tiles and lots of weeds.
There was a small obstacle in the way of getting it right - a "small mountain".
This "small" mountain turned out to be the peak of a larger mountain.
All said and done we rented a rock drill, we used sledgehammers and after a few days of hard work we get it the way we want it. We are not the ones who see obstacles but rather opportunities - we removed the mountain and we got a really good surface where we can play table tennis or park a bigger car.
New tiles and voila - a perfect place without weeds!

Now, after a lot of hard work, we can enjoy our nice front with good drainage and nice evening lighting. The feeling of coming home is wonderful and we are so happy with the result.