A glimpse of the work so far - A lot of grey
Don't you wish you could sometimes wave a magic wand and have your garden or home transformed in a few days like they do on the TV ! No such luck here, twelve years on and we are still working away to make our home into a beautiful and comfortable space. I am really lucky that I have such an amazing husband who can literally turn his hand to anything though, so after a bit of a break he is hard at it again.
If you have been following my posts you will know this is pretty much what the garden has looked like for the last twelve years. Trying to bring order to our home with three young boys, it was always going to be the lowest priority. Happily the house is all but sorted now so we have turned our attention to the garden. That will be the royal "we" you understand. I am pretty much the one who says what I would like and hubby is the "doer". Although I have contributed to painting the fence and the doors of my shed !
A new fence was erected and painted at the end of the garden. I didn't get my own way of having a concrete wall ! Not happy about that one but hubby just couldn't get the vision. Oh well, at least I got the choice of what fencing we put in. Painted it grey to match the fence the neighbour put in along the right hand side of the garden (again boring ) and again, I painted it grey !
After building the base for the decking, hubby built the firepit. We decided on an L Shape design to give benefit of the heat to everyone sat in the corner of the decking. Originally, we were thinking of building the L shaped seating into the deck with wood. After some serious research and costing, we discovered that actually it would be cheaper and probably better for our marriage if we just bought the seating !
After rendering the sides of the firepit "we" painted it white. Sorry pictures out of sync here. The neighbours fence is now also painted grey.
The decking boards start to be fitted. Because of the apple tree in the garden and the various sheds, our garden will never have a lovely lawn. So we have also decided to pave and gravel over the small patch of lawn that's left after the decking has been installed.
Decking laid. More grey paint !
Think I should have approached a few DIY companies for the paint. Would have saved us a few bob. Don't know if you noticed but hubby also put lights into the decking around the firepit and along the front edge. It looks really great at night already. Getting excited for it all being finished. I know we don't have great weather in this country for sitting out but even cold evenings will be wonderful if the rain stays away.
This is where my contribution comes in. Yes I know hubby built the shed from scratch but I can at least paint it.
I found the wrought iron panels at the recycling centre. £10 for three. Hubby rubbed them down and treated them and gave them a coat of white metal paint and they look good as new.
See the white shed ? I painted that. Hubby meanwhile, is hard at work mixing concrete to lay the slabs. Leaning up against my shed is a treat for all his hard work. Yes, a PURCHASED new shed. The one he is standing in front of he built himself out of scraps of wood twelve years ago. I figured it was about time he had a new one .
More work required on my shed before its finished and emptied of all the junk ( I mean treasure). Meanwhile laying the first of the stone slabs. This is the area under the apple tree. Now I wanted ordinary gravel. Shock horror, hubby wanted white !!! Nope not practical I argued. Its UNDER the apple tree, it will get filthy and full of leaves and fallen, rotting apples. No, he got his way. We have white gravel. Watch this space on how long that one lasts.
So this is pretty much where we are up to at this point. We treated ourselves to new outdoor furniture as we saved money from our holiday. Its covered up at the moment and the dining set is in the shed for the time being. I think the garden is going to look pretty good and a great extension of our home once its finished.
