Shed moved to its new home

The wee shed which blocked the view of the garden from the pathway, and cluttered up the garden was moved this weekend, with the aid of all the boys who were here for a family party.

It is now in its new space, and will eventually be hidden by a fence - the store area of the vegetable garden.  The gardening tools will be in the shed and there will be space for wheelbarrows, ladders and spare bits of useful wood/metal, etc.  

A wood store will be constructed along one side - apparently we have 3 tons of wood awaiting delivery from Henry's arborist friend.

Will keep you posted on construction phase and delivery of wood.

now you see it 

now you don't.....

to go here

Here it is!!

The terrace looking sunny, even though it is 

A cold and frosty morning!  

Mid 20th Century chair revamp

The £20 chair revamp is finished.

The chair frame, sanded and oiled came up a beautiful red mahogany colour.  
New webbing and foam, then covered with fire retardant calico.
Chose a bargain fabric which we thought went with the frame, and echoed the fabric that was removed, rather than a wildly modern fabric.  We are saving that for the bedroom curtains - along the theme of "The Italian Job".  

Wondering now whether to attempt to cover the (bargain £50) IKEA chair - slightly worried as the fabric I want is nearly £30 a metre, as opposed to this chair which was £4.99 a metre.  Maybe save myself the £250 I have been quoted to cover it.

Come back soon to see what I have decided to do.

Six days and a half day to clean up - they call it hard landscaping for a reason

The surround-a-house is complete, despite the downpours.  The planting areas are a quagmire, but they will dry out eventually.  I have spent a couple of days with cousin Nicola identifying suitable plants.  I do have in mind grasses and verbena bonariensis, alliums and other tallish plants to complement the grasses in the strip garden.  The triangle part I think will have bulbs and the black mondo grass as a carpet, but need to check that the site is suitable.  I think there will also be some alchemilla to soften edges too.

The wide entrance area, which catches the afternoon/evening sun (if it ever shines again) will have a seating area, probably with the settle that is in the house, and pots and planters to soften it. 

So here are the pictures, I hope they are fairly informative - will be for those who have seen the house.

Oh, nearly forgot, three posts in (to screen off the shed when it is moved to other side of house) to create a screen for storing ladders, wheelbarrows, bins etc., and also to create a log store.  

the terrace complete from one wall

to the other

posts for the 'utility area' and log store (green shed and slabs going)

WET, rain and more rain - but almost complete

Too dark to show you the splendid work that Roots and Shoots have done, but will try and get some photos on tomorrow if it ever stops raining, and we get some bright daylight. 

Later that week

How amazing are the landscapers - the surround-a-house now looks like this - I have only taken pictures through the window at the moment as I don't want to disturb or embarrass the guys.

Now the serious business of plants will begin.

outside the sitting room side door

the path to the front door (from the bedroom)

A lovely sunny Monday morning and pathworks begin

A lovely day for the start of the hard landscaping of the front terrace the side entrance and associated works - gosh that sounds formal, anyway a couple of pics to be going on with - both taken from the kitchen doorway....

November 5th - bonfire/fireworks night

No fireworks here, but we have our new metal legs on the table (which may well have been forged, or at least welded), so there is a vague fire connection there.

These are the legs that you will have seen previously, which were made by Conan the Blacksmith.  Very elegant they look too, I think.  Hope you agree. We have put them on a shortened version of the table we have been using in the stead of a 'real' table, as we have not been able to come to any decisions about what that should be, other than it would have Conan's legs on it. 

sawing the end off the table

done

finished, and ready for use

The beam in the studio has risen, and there is no pool of water on the roof any more.  Photos to follow.

A very rainy October day

The rain has stopped and a little sun is peeping through, before it gets dark. This time of year when the sun is low it shines in through the slot window in the bedroom.  I sound as though I am speaking of experiencing living in the house at this time of year, but this is the first October we have been in the house, however when it was in the process of being built I remember the sun flooding in through this little window, although for most of 2014 the house was wrapped in blue tarpaulin.  The windy nights having to get up and go out to make sure the house was still fastened down, over....... all now just a distant memory.

Mark has put the roof trim on the studio and it looks very finished now, except for some varnish removal on one of the windows.

However, there has been a problem with the roof, due to our inexperience as builders, and water has started to pond on the roof, the weight of the water making the roof sag, and therefore creating more ponding which in turn, etc. etc. I am sure you know the story.  So to remedy this we have a metal beam, which Henry and Susan helped to put up last night on to the Acrow props so that we can slowly lift the roof back up again.  I will have a splendid metal beam running across the studio, which I will be able to hang stuff from using magnets, instead of having to find fixings in the ceilings.  

We now have to gently raise the beam until it brings the roof back to its level.  

Inside the studio

the beam has to raise up this much - little  by little

Will keep you informed of developments.  

Re the garden, hope that by next week we will have news of a start date for the paving.

Still all go here.

Waiting for front garden developments

The view from the kitchen window.  Just an update, to say that nothing much has happened over the past 10 days or so.  But as soon as it does the pictures will flow again.

Today we have had the telephone pole surveyed again, probably the fifth person to look at it since August last year.  It has to be replaced, so they are wondering how to get a new pole into position.  Talks of big cranes from the school yard next door;  scaffolding; maybe putting the new one beside the old one and cutting the old one off, which might suit us.  In case you didn't know you can claim wayleave from BT if you have a pole on your property.  But I think it is a one off payment, so maybe if previous owners had claimed we wouldn't have got it. Anyway a one off payment of £160 can't be sniffed at in this day and age.

Working on one of the chairs.  Clearing out the Elle Decoration magazines from the studio.  Anyone want about 60 back copies?

Think I had better sign out for today, rambling. 

Have been away......

Sorry, no posts recently.  I have been away, enjoying warm weather and rain in Spain. Gathering ideas and inspiration. And making a Catalan basket.

Nothing much happening on the house front, just the landscaping.  I am hoping my friend who is a garden designer (Tatton Hall, Chelsea) will look at my plans (now sketched on a bit of paper) and give me some further ideas.  I think I know how I want the front to be, but another input is really helpful.  Especially from such a splendid designer. (Will ask her if she minds her website details going on my blog). The landscape builder has confirmed for the end of the month, so will need to get the rest of the materials together.

Am getting closer to getting chairs reupholstered.  Have asked Craig's who did the sofa to come and quote me for loose covers for the Ikea chair, and to totally refurbish a wee chair that has been lingering about in our old house for years: bottom falling out, springs shot, but it is just the right size for our sitting room/tv area.  And if you keep things long enough they come back in style.  Or as my son says "on trend".  I am finding it difficult to source reasonably priced material in a retro design, that is suitable for loose covers.  Seen some splendid Frido Khalo designed fabric, but no use for chair covers!

Whilst in Spain I noticed that they use a lot of Corten steel, on buildings, ornamental flower beds, gates and doors.  One particular idea I liked was a sliding gate (it was on a first floor balcony, so presume it was used to get things up onto the first floor as the house was extremely old.  I think a sliding gate at the side of the house would solve a lot of problems;  hanging the gate, the width of the gate, the part of the house onto which it would close, all things that are potential problems.  But a sliding gate could slide along the wall, would be secured to the wall, and would just close against the house side, without having to have uprights to close against.  All worth thinking about - don't know if Corten steel is out of the budget, but ideas and inspiration and some working drawings will come soon.

sliding gate

steel edging in public garden - it was angled back so that the top edges could be used as seating

CURTAINS

Curtains for the big garden windows made and up.  When the windows are open the curtains billow in the breeze (not a lot of that just recently as it has been very still and damp).  But I am very pleased with them, the fabric is just the right weight and now it is getting darker it is quite pleasant with them drawn in the evenings.

Next on the list is the recovering of chairs.......... But first to find some good fabric.  I have seen some that I am going to have if I can still find it.  These colours, but the pattern is slightly different, for one chair.  Need to find something else for the others.....

DONE! exterior complete

At long last the exterior is finished.

Wednesday 27th August we collected the timber to make up the size onto which to fix the metal corners.

Then we set to to put the corners on.  And managed to get them all on in one day - 8.00 pm and we had done it.  On Monday we put the compriband into the shadow gaps to seal the joins.

putting on wrap on kitchen corner

The bedroom corner completed

The sitting room corner before.......

.....and after!

looking past kitchen and towards bedroom

beautiful corners - now for the garden

next month the level access and some paving will be done

                                                

Things happen, life fills up the days

Since I last wrote life has been rather hectic, but we have managed to do some work, and change the IKEA cabinet a bit - more narrow drawers and a splendid black tile to go on the top.  Can't believe that it took almost three weeks to eventually get it together how we wanted.  Anyway, working well for us now.

before

now with right configuration of drawers

Also, I have cut the curtains, need to make them up next, so hope to do some of that today.

Over the past week and the weekend we have put up the white corners, and infilled above the small windows which had been lowered, leaving a gap above them.  They now have insulation and a metal plate well secured with Puraflex 25.  We also used this to put up the white corners and seal them.

Another step nearer to completion.  We are just waiting for some timber to be sized correctly and we can put up the corner posts to each of the big windows, kitchen, bedroom and sitting room.  Maybe the actual building will be complete by the end of this month!!!!!!

Delays due to illness have put us back on the level entrance which we are having at the kitchen door.  Investigating some other people who might be able to do it for us.  That also means the paving for the garden and front door entrance is delayed too.  Hopefully we can get this underway soon.

 East Lothian sunflowers, from a field where you could cut your own, £1 for 3!