Today seemed to be the last day of work on the steps, before the grand opening (scuse the pun!) tomorrow – when they knock a large whole in our kitchen wall. Below are shots of the finished (apart from painting over the render) walls and steps – I’m sure you’ll agree it’s looking pretty good….
Finally coming together…
We’re running out of things to say about all this now – the pictures pretty much say it all! Today Tom (I am reliably informed by Sara!) added the side panelling to the top portion of the steps, and finished the retaining wall at the bottom. He also did a rough "scratch" layer of rendering…
Retaining walls built in one afternoon
Henry was at home today, due to an emergency doctors appointment to find out what is wrong with his skin. Turns out he has a skin infection which is why he is covered in blisters on his hands, legs and feet. I think we’ve caught it in time before it spreads elsewhere. Therefore there aren’t…
Day 3 of the dramatic changes
Today was exciting as I managed to choose some slabs to go on top of the concrete. I chose some grey/green slabs in a riven pattern. They look bright in the dry and dark in the wet. Perfect. We’re not allowed to walk on them until Sunday though. The guys are leaving for the weekend…
Day two of the building work and there’s more digging to be done.
Tom and Shaun have done a great job in terms of digging a hole. But there was still more to be dug, including this lump of concrete! Tom got his breaker and starter annoying the neighbours at 8am. He was pleased though to find that it was only about 20cm deep and about 50cm wide….
Building work begins in the garden.
Last night Mr. Jenkins came round and said that he could start tomorrow. So we said OK and at 7.45 in the morning the builders were round. They begun digging straight away. And we ended up with a great big hole where the flower bed once was. No more weeding for me! The steps are…
A bit more gardening for good measure.
Having realise the garden (if you can call it that in it’s current state!) was beginning to resemble a jungle, we decided it was time to get the lawnmower out again (or more accurately, borrow it from Ben and Katy again!) to attack the "lawn". As well as that it was a good opportunity to…
The Heater arrives, just before the Hot weather…!
As with most of our big purchases in the flat so far, eBay came in to it’s own again last week when we managed to snap up a Garden Heater (or an Alien lamp as Sara calls them) for the bargain price of £80. It was a self-assembly job, and after a few botched attempts…
A small gathering of drunkards.
This weekend we had a small gathering of friends (mainly school and university friends) round to celebrate our new flat. The first big barbecue of the season went down very well, and as far as we’re away everyone had a good time – some of us even stayed up until 4.30am playing Scalextric in the…
“There was Elliss, Elliss, putting up a trellis… In the store…”
I’m writing this update about a week later, so my recall of what we did is pretty slim! :) Needless to say Henry put some Trellising up, which was harder than it sounds due to a mix up with some 100mm and 160mm support screws (see below!) and the need to buy a big new…