"HaKrause" wrote in message
...
Yikes!

Got bids last fall on paving my driveway. Bids ranged from about $2900
to $3500, but it was getting close to the end of the residential paving
season (need consistent temps at least in the upper 40s or low 50s, I
was told) and I took no action.

So, I called the three bidders this week, and the lowest bid is now
$3500, ranging up to $4200. All because of the increase in petroleum
prices since last fall.

All this for 4-1/2" of asphalt compacted to 3 to 3-1/2" finished over my
existing gravel and bluestone driveway, so the "low white fence for
climbing roses" my wife wants will look "more finished" than it would
with the gravel driveway.

The only good part is I plan to rent a gasoline-powered posthole digger
for the fenceposts. That'll be the fun part! I figured since I am now
60, I don't need to be digging no steeeking fence post holes by hand.


My former 'next door neighbour', the lawyer for a major construction firm in
this province, got the deluxe treatment. Surveyors, gangs of workers and
supervisors, and lots of heavy equipment excavated down a foot or so, filled
with clean stone and topped off with the most perfect paving job I've seen.
His driveway is approx. 10' x 60'. He wouldn't tell me what he paid, but I
know it was 'deep discounted'. Made me jealous. My last paving was a patch
to fill in ruts worn in the asphalt thanks to our many freeze/thaw cycles.