The front of our house keeps evolving — goodbye scalloped porch, hello red door — and this weekend we finally tackled the uneven front walkway that came with the house.
Why fix it? Because the old path was jagged, narrow and a trip hazard. It felt more like an ankle-sprain waiting to happen than an inviting approach to our front door.
We like a rustic, cottage-style path, but this one was too wobbly and crowded by ornamental grasses and wooden borders left by the previous owner. It didn’t present the welcoming entry we’d imagined, so we dug it up to make room for something wider and sturdier.
After several hours of hauling beams, relocating plants and moving slate, the area looked like this:
Fortunately, we already had a large supply of slate tiles left over from last summer’s back patio project. Our plan was simple: fit the slabs together in a tighter, wider pattern for a more substantial, wobble-free walkway. It sounded easy on paper, but in reality it turned into a weekend-long puzzle of heavy pieces — 48 slabs at roughly twenty pounds each.
After two hours of lifting and shifting on Day 1, muscle exhaustion set in and this was our progress:
Day 2 started with ibuprofen and a divide-and-conquer approach. One of us worked from the porch outward while the other continued from the driveway. After three hours we were nearly meeting in the middle.
Finally, after roughly four hours more of careful placement (and a few dozen cramped hands), our 900-pound puzzle was finished.
The result is a marked improvement. We were able to form a clean-edged curve on the right side of the path without cutting any slate — luckily we had a mix of straight and curved slab edges that fit together. The slight color variation between slabs also worked in our favor, giving the walkway a more natural, bluestone-like appearance instead of a uniform charcoal slab look. Not bad for a project that cost essentially nothing.
There’s still a bit to do: we need to dig each tile in so they sit completely level, and once they settle we’ll seed grass in the gaps for a charming, cottage-style finish that blends into the front yard. For now, though, we’re enjoying the safer, wider approach to our home — and recovering from a very productive weekend of heavy lifting.