My Garden's Working Progress

Haven't updated this thread for a while. Haven't done much expect started work on finishing the other half's part of the garden.

I've only widened the border by about 6 inches (would have had it deeper but he insisted that was the deepest he wanted it) and must have dug out 3 barrow loads of rubble in the process.

Not much different really than it was before.



Dug this out of the ground while I was there though and am wondering if I can do anything with it before I give it to the scrap man. I think it's a dustbin lid but can't tell. It looks very shallow though.

 

It could be an ancient battle shield worth millions!!!!

 

You could use it as a frisbee.

 

I doubt it will have much effect on him. He has tinnitus.

 

Use it as a mould to make stepping stones?

 

That's inspiring. Thanks for the photos. I love what you've done so far.

 

Thanks Sniffy.

I haven't updated this thread for months as I've been busy working on my house instead. Have been teaching myself how to plaster and now that I've nearly finished the room and the weather is nicer I can now concentrate on the garden again. I've still got tons to do on our house though so this thread may not be as updated as much as it used to be.

In the meantime here's a few pictures of the room we have been working on. Just to show you all that I am / we are still working hard.

This is how our spare bedroom look soon after we moved in and stripped the walls of it's wallpaper. The walls were in a pretty bad shape and couldn't simply be painted over. This large built in hid a lot of sins and also took up too much of the rooms space.



Once the built in was removed we quickly found that most of our heating pipes were hidden behind it so we now had to seriously think about what to do next.





We decided to get a brand new boiler fitted in this room and then build a built in around it. This would also allow us to replace the horrible fire downstairs and save a bit of money on the gas bill. We had to pay also for all the pipes to be placed back under the floorboards, fixing the bodges of whoever originally installed the heating.



Next job was to do was to build a built in to hide the boiler. That was the other half's job and mine was to plaster all the other walls until he had finished the structure and it was plaster boarded and ready for a skim. This is how it looked before the built in was installed and I had plastered all the walls I could do in this room.



Unfortunately the depth we wanted the wardrobe didn't run in line with the joists, so the other half had to lift the floor boards up and add a few noggins so this would be nicely anchored to the floor. He had to chisel a bit of the joists out to do this.



Framework was all built, although getting it plumb was quite difficult.



Then plasterboarded....



Then skimmed by me



Then undercoated...



Skirting had been installed and we are currently working on the coving. So as you can see we have been too busy for the garden....

 

Pergola will be built as soon as this room has been finished (weather permitting or course) and here is the final design of what it will look like. Still not sure about the paving underneath though. It should hopefully cost us less than £100 to build. I'm hoping to grow some apple cordons up and along each spar.

 

Well done!

Plumbing is a much easier than plastering! If you can do the first, you can do the second! I can plaster as well as you appear to have done it, but it took ME forever - never again.

 

.....Brilliant job Jane.....plastering is certainly an art and it looks like you've cracked it....Big thumbs up....

 

We didn't want to even attempt the plumbing and got a professional in to do it. Don't really want to mess about with gas pipes and things like that. Cost us a great deal though, but I know someone has done a decent job.

The plastering I'm still not at professional levels at and don't intend to be. I have to just settle with what I can do as it's only for my house. I don't intend to take it up as a profession at all. But like to think I've saved myself a few quid in the process.

 

I know it isn't rocket science, but plastering is always a skill that I admire

 

First job in the garden project this year is building my new cold frame. Dave kindly gave me some glass left over from the erection of the workshop which he had taking up space in there ever since and also some wood removed from his bench to make the frames out of. Today he knocked them together in an afternoon.

 

Progress up to lunchtime today. Cut my plywood bits to size and created housings for the corners. I could have just screwed all the plywood together but plywood has a tendency to fall apart if the ends are exposed to moisture.

Only cost me ten quid so far. Plywood came from my local corner shop which was closing down and paid a fiver for a few sheets of 3\4 inch thick that they had made into crude shelving for storage.