Painted up

Trying to decide on a colour took more time than building. It was going to be silver birch, then black, then red (like the Swedish ones). When it was built and we saw the pale colour it seemed wrong to go dark so we opted for stone with autumn red for the windows. This is a funny plastic sort of paint that I'm hoping won't peel off. We have a summerhouse.

Roof goes on

We left the summerhouse without a roof overnight as the weather was looking good. Getting the two roof panels on went much smoother than we thought. A bit scary as Chris had to lift them on his own while I pretended to be helping from the inside.

This is the view from the inside. Good to see the garden from a new angle.

Windows in

The windows go in as the walls get a bit taller.

More exciting than the base

Seeing the walls start to grow (after we had resolved the issue of walls not fixing together due to the base problems). It was really hot.

The base

Dry weather has returned so onwards with the base. It was really flimsy (really flimsy) so we've reinforced it with extra wood. It came in three parts and was hard to fix together as it wasn't quite square. This gave us (Chris) a few headaches later on. Not much we could do about it.

Not travelling light

After a total mix-up with the builders merchant we finally get 2 tons of gravel delivered, craned up and over our front wall. This gravel still has some ground to cover...200 feet away. Fingers crossed our old wonky wheel barrow is up to the task. Oh, and that Chris is too.

Part of the route (crossing our neighbours ground a bit):

The sky is turning grey and sees the end of our sunny spell. Bad news for project work.

Big cover up

The area is gravel-boarded to contain the gravel but we use thick membrane to stop the dreaded weeds from invading.

Tis pic shows how much ground we had to excavate to get the levels right. Our garden was dropping a foot over 11 feet:

It's gone

A lot of barrows later and the weedy mound has gone. Can't wait to extend the bed down here...haven't had a new area to plant for a few months.

Turf's up

Thick, heavy, horrid turf. Even though it's the best in the garden, still nice to see it go (less mowing too).

Here's the view up the garden:

Getting organised

This is the very end of our garden, about 275 feet from the house. It had become a bit messy as we (meaning I) tend to empty barrows and throw grass (weed) clippings here. As we started lifting the turf we realised we'd have to clear up this area to make room for the additional turf. We spent the best part of a day clearing the rubbish out, leveling the pile and pulling up a rampant jasmine that had been planted for the arch but had decided the claim the area as its own.

We did manage to save a good few barrows of compost which will come in handy for the spuds that need earthing up. The plan is to get hold of some palettes to create a big bay that will be our slow compost pile.

Work begins

Work has started at the end of the garden. The big project for 2009. Turf is coming up and that big tump is about to be tackled...

Birthday blooms

Gorgous flowers from work.