The Driveway Debacle.

Pictures are below.

I rarely, if ever, bitch about my husband because there’s not much to bitch about. He’s a really good guy. Today, however, he is at the top of my shit list.

Our driveway is a mess. An absolute mudpit. It is supposed to be a cinder driveway (think very tiny stones) but most has been plowed off or just worn off so now we are left with mud. We have a fairly long driveway as our garage is detached and way in back. The driveway runs from the road, along side of the house and all the way to the garage. It’s narrow but long...and it’s a mudpit. With all of the melting snow, you sink about two inches down into the mud when walking on it. I have to take the dogs out the front door and around the other side of the house because it’s just that bad.

I want to have it paved this spring. There would be no mess in the spring and fall or when it rains. It would DRASTICALLY cut down on the amount of dirt we and the dogs track into the house. The lawn wouldn’t be wrecked every year by having all the cinder plowed into the grass and then having to rake it all back out in the spring. It would add value to the house and be aesthetically pleasing. It’s going to cost about $4,500. The problem? DH doesn’t ‘want’ to pave the driveway. Why? He doesn’t want to pay for his half of it. I think this is horribly unfair.

He came into this relationship with his clothes and his dresser. I had or bought everything else and I mean EVERYTHING; all the tvs, stereos, furniture, dishes, glasses, cookware and that was fine. When we bought this house, I wanted a dining room set. I had to pay for it myself. Also fine. But when it comes to the house, I think differently. Every time something needs to be done to the house, I have to ‘beg’ in order to hire someone. When we bought the house, he wanted to refinsh the hardwoods himself. Eeep! He has never refinished a floor in his life! I had to kick and scream to get him to agree to hire someone to do it. (It wound up costing us $500 to have 2 rooms and a bathroom done.) When we went to have the back room remodeled, he wanted to do it himself, which while I think he may have been able to pull it off, it would have taken him two months and I would have to had to be at his beck and call to help. Frustrating at best. Again, I had to push and push to get him (read: us) to spend a whopping $900 to have someone come in and do it for us. They did a fantastic job and it took them two days. Now it’s the driveway. I just don’t see why I should have to pay for the whole thing myself just because I ‘want’ it and he doesn’t. It’s for the house! It’s for both of us! We are both going to reap the benefits of it and get the money back out when we sell the place. And it’s not that he doesn’t have the money. He makes about 20k more a year than I do.

I’m angry and frustrated.

How would you handle this? Has anyone had a situation like this? Help!!