Some more gardening progress

A lot has happened in the garden in the last month - spring has definitely sprung and everything is growing like crazy.

The front of the house needed some updating desperately.  This very drab looking basket had been in place since we moved in:

Time for an update!

I got a new coco liner from Wilko's for £3-4, and 3 new plants from the garden centre (£3 for 3).  I re-used the succelent that had managed to survive such a desolate year, but I broke it up into two clumps.  Here is the result:

Looking much better I think!

The vegetable patch has also been coming on well.  I have religiously been planting my seeds in accordance with my calendar that I planned out over the winter.  Here are some progress shots:

My calendar showing me what I should be sowing each week!

The first mange tout going in - a monumental moment

Well these little salad beauts raised their little heads a few weeks ago, and then after a few days disappeared as quickly as they came :(

The first mange tout coming up - these have come on loads now since this picture, and the second planting (two weeks after this first planting) have already come up too.

The veg bed all marked out.  We are a bit limited on space so it's quite 'compact' planting.

The raspberries sprouting - no longer dead looking sticks!

Our cloches from Poundland - doing a good job at keeping the cats and their poop off our veg!  Also protecting against the worst of the elements, although does mean I have to water them more often than I would otherwise.

The rhubarb coming along nicely.  Possibly the easiest thing in the world to grow.  Just leave it to do its own thing  - simples.

I will add more photos when I take them to show how they are all coming along.  We have more peas to plant tomorrow.

Gardening progress, one year on

We have had the house for just over a year now, and the garden has slowly had a bit of an upgrade.  

This was the garden when we got it:

The christmas tree in the far left of this shot got the axe, literally.  It was far too big and it get banging on the kitchen window which was really annoying.  The arch had a beautiful clematis on it, but the arch was rotten through the legs and it collapsed very shortly after we moved in.  The clematis was so entwined on the arch, it was impossible to save, which was such a shame as it was stunning when it was in bloom.

The serious gardening started with the hideous patch of bark where the old owners had kept their trampoline.  But the neighbour's cats just used it as a toilet - lovely! So all the bark came up and I reseeded the lawn.  There was a huge choice of grass seed, but after a little online research I read that Wilkinsons own brand of lawn seed is the best, and cheapest, on the market.   And it did a smashing job.  Turns out the cat's just use the lawn as their new toilet... I just can't win!!

Can you tell where the new patch is?!

Then came the fence.  The survey we had done before we purchased the house called it semi-dilapidated... I think it was shot!  The posts and gravel boards were in sound condition though which was some good news, although they were a dodgy green colour.  I had some masonary paint mixed up a the local Johnstone's decorating centre, in a brown shade and painted that on the posts and gravel boards once we had gotten rid of the old fence panels. This was the pile of debris we took to the tip:

I did dig down a little bit in front of the gravel boards to make sure I got as much of them painted as I could.  I put the soil back once the paint was dry. The whole job turned out to only be an afternoon job so pretty good going, but a fairly big financial commitment of £300-350.  It was worth it though :)

In September we made some vegetable beds at the bottom of the garden.  We thought it would be the only time that we would have to prep the beds before the 2015 growing season (as we had a week off at home in September) - so it made sense.  It started a bit grassy and a bit bushy, but we soon hacked it back into shape:

We wanted 8' x 4' semi-raised beds.  The dimensions were the right size to be able to access the bed from both sides without having to stand on the soil.  We used 6 decking boards at £4 each to do the job, so for two beds we spent £24.

The first seeds are going in next week so that's all rather exciting :)

We have also jazzed up the borders down the sides of the grden.  It was originally a very undefined edge between the lawn and the border which made mowing rather difficult.  I managed to source some free bricks being given away on gumtree so I collected them with the intention to line the edge of the lawn with them.  I attempted to do the borders in September also but the ground was so hard it took me all day just to put about 5 bricks in.  This was my progress:

Very disappointing.  So the project kind of took a back seat on the long list of jobs to do, and the bricks lay in a heap at the end of the garden.

That was until a few weeks ago when we had an unusuallly nice day and I decided I would have another go at it.  Well what a difference a few months makes!  The ground  was so soft I did the whole right hand side in about an hour!   I ran out of bricks today, but I've made very good progress.  I've also planted up the borders a little bit, althoughit will take quite some time for them to fill out.

You might notice that there is a big bare patch in the front right hand corner.  That was a big bush that was there, but nobody knew what it was!  Someone said it was a rhodeddendron, someone said it was something else... but after a whole year it didn;t flower at all despite showing promise that it would.  The trouble with it was that it had been allowed to get out of control - it was huge, and it was dwarfing the rhubarb plants.  So a few weeks ago, this also got the axe.

This was before:

And now:

It looks a little rough now but with a little grass seed it will look much better.

I got some raspberry plants for my birthday which I planted out just after Christmas.   I also got some free well rotted manure on gumtree which I used to improve the soil befor planting them up.  I painted the back fence to match the new side fence as the old yellow paint was flaking and not in a good way.

They looked like sticks when they arrived, so I hope they grow! In the past week I have noticed a few green shoots though, so that's good.

I have since added some posts and wires for support. 

That's about it on the garden front for now.  But I hope you can see we have made huge progress.  The vegetable patch will be a work in progress which I hope to keep the blog updated with.

I also need to source some more bricks to finish the bottom end of the garden.

Dining Chair Overhaul

I wanted some nice chairs to go with our lovely new table.  The ones we had were nice enough, but they didn't quite go.

So I bought these four chairs on Gumtree for £25:

Very tired looking.  And mouldy! So I gave them a good scrub down with some hot soapy water and left them to dry in the sun.

Because there was mould on the chairs, I was a bit concerned about the padding.  So I decided to take that out too.

The old tacks didn't come out.  They were pretty rusty.  But it was ok,

I got some new upholstery foam from the local market.  I went for a sheet 1.5" thick, although I think retrospectively that was probably a bit too thick.  It very easy to cut, by just using a bread knife:

I put one coat of Zinsser Primer on (left over from the interior door renovation) and then one coat of Johnstone's Brilliant White Eggshell (also left over from other projects).

For some reason the eggshell took absolutely ages to dry - probably 2.5days until it was completely dry.  I have no idea why, but it got there in the end.  Each chair also took ages to actually paint, maybe 1.5-2 hours per chair, per coat.  It was worth it though.

I bought some lovely flowery fabric, and a superb staple gun to reupholster the seat.

It did take two to stretch and staple the fabric though.

And there we have it.  4 lovely chairs, from drab and mouldy, to fab and flowery :)

Total cost of project:

Chairs = £25

Paint = Leftover

Upholstery foam = £13

Fabric = £10

Staple gun  & staples = £13

TOTAL = £61

Bringing the internal doors into the 21st Century

So I have been struggling with the internal upstairs doors for a while.  Struggling in the fact that I hate them! Just look at them:

Before

Urgh! So dark, and the brass handles had seen much better days.  In fact the bathroom lock didn't even work.

The trouble is, the style of the doors themselves aren't actually horrendous - it's just the colour I can;t get on board with.  So, I decided to paint them.

I tried to sand one of the doors, using my little mouse sander, but even with a very coarse grit sandpaper, it didn't seem to take off whatever was on the doors.  I'm not sure if it was varnish or lacquer or what... who knows.

This was when I came across Zinsser BIN primer.  A bit pricey at £40 for a 2.5L tin, but here's the magic:

NO PREP REQUIRED! Nope, not even sanding! Yay!!  Apparently it sticks to almost anything. Wow.

I did prep the doors in the fact that I used some wood filler to fill in any knocks in the doors, and I sanded this down once dry so it was smooth.  I also cleaned the doors as they were a bit grubby.

The primer was a really weird paint to use.  It was like water and just fell off the paintbrush and dripped everywhere between the tin and the door.  However, once it made it on the door, it was so thick and hard to spread. Weird.  I decided to do two coats, although I'm not sure it needed it.  It only took 15 mins to be touch dry and 45 mins to re-coat so no hanging about.

I then did one top coat of brilliant white Johnstone's eggshell:  http://www.johnstonestrade.com/products/product-display/eggshell

The handles were what got this whole project started.  I happen to look on the Wickes website one day to find they were having a mega sale on door handles.  I saw some nice Chrome ones, massively reduced to just £3 each, and £5 for the locking bathroom one.  That would be the whole set for five doors for just £17! I also had to buy new chrome latches and hinges which cost more than the handles in the end!

I also had to chisel out a bit of the doors to fit the new latches in as they were ever so slightly different in size (change from imperial to metric I think).  Turns out I'm pretty handy with a chisel.

The screws that came with the handles were absolute rubbish, and I think it was the second one that I used, the head just sheared off completely leaving half the screw in the door.  Marvellous.  So I ditched those screws and just used my own.  Although I guess when you are only pay £3 for a handle, what do you expect?

It's amazing how much brighter they make the hallway.  I'm regretting polished chrome handles a bit as I can see the finger prints on them very easily, especially the bathroom door handle which obviously gets a lot of use.

There was also the incident where the bathroom door got stuck - the latch (not the lock) jammed in the door and wouldn't open. Luckily no one was stuck inside, but I did really need a wee! #firstworldproblems
We had to use hubbies European health card in the end to slot down the edge and push it back in, but it wasn't easy due to the architrave.  I would like to say no European health cards got hurt in the opening of the door, but I would be lying if I did.

It was a normal bathroom latch/lock set up from Wickes, but I got a bit nervous after the incident (just imagine if you were the only one in the house and you got trapped in - eek!), that I went and bought a Yale one to replace it.  There is something about the brand Yale that I inherently trust - I don't know why - good marketing obviously!

Anyway, what so you think?

With some wood filler in a blemish on the wood

Lined up for painting in my workshop *carport**cough*

Left to right: Original, Two coats primer, One coat primer

With top coat - looking better!  I had to bring the doors inside as it was so cold and humid outside I didn't think the paint would dry, at least not in a reasonable time frame that would allow me to get the bathroom door back on before the in-laws came for the weekend!

It's hard to take a photo in such a confined space but you get the idea.  I'm also now aware that the architrave now looks naff and a slightly different white to the doors.  That will need to be done soon.  It never ends!

We have also done a scheme of upgrading to the window handles.  Brass, again(!), was the theme throughout the house, and some of the locks were past serviceable.

On first impressions I thought we would need new windows, or at least a professional in to have a look.  Who knew it would be so easy!  YouTube, where would I be without you?!

This is an example of one of the window handles before:

It really is just a few screws and the job is done! I genuinely think it looks like we have had new windows from the inside.  It makes a huge difference to the look of all the rooms.  We also had to change one of the locking mechanisms.  This is ok for ground floor windows as access is easy - luckily for us, the knackered lock was in the room with the flat roof outside so we could climb out onto that to get access.  The trickiest bit was ordering the right lock - two attempts later and I got there in the end!  But once I had the right one, again it was just a few simple screws.

Doesn't that look better?

Post transformation

Race Bling Medal Holder

I made this little holder for all my husband's race medals. I used a scrap bit of wood I found in the garage and some red gloss paint left over from another project.  I printed the letters off from word and cut them out of sticky back plastic using a craft knife.

The hooks are dresser hooks, bargain from Wilko's! 75p  for a pack of 6.

Garden Bench and Table

The owners before us left an assortment of things in the house and the garage, of varying quality! A lot of it went on freecycle/gumtree as we would never make use of it.

A few gems in disguise though, including a garden table and a garden bench. Both had seen much better days.

To be honest, I made the table worse by using it as a work table for a few weeks!

THE TABLE

I started with a wire brush on the wood to get rid of all the algae sort of stuff that was on the table top. I don't know if it was the right thing to do, but it seemed to do the job. Then a sand and I was pretty much back to bare wood.  I did this with a sheet of sand paper wrapped around a block of wood - this was pre mouse sander days!

The base I brushed down with a wire brush, and gave it a bit of a clean.

The base I primed with red oxide paint. I only did this because I had some in the garage, but as I was using hammerite direct to rust paint it probably wasn't necessary. 

Then two coats of hammerite black paint.

The top I used teak oil, which I did three coats of using a brush.

Having lived with the table for a good few months now, I'm a little disappointed with the top. It has tired very quickly and looks like it needs of a spruce up again. That will be another job for next spring.

THE BENCH

The bench had many similar processes.

I had to throw all the wood away as it was all rotten and one of the slats was missing.  I had to saw the old bolts off as they were rusted in place.  I tried spraying with WD40 in advance of undoing them, but no luck! And I prepared and painted the metal in a similar way to the table, although I skipped the red oxide primer this time.

The slats were a bit of a decision for me.  Hardwood would have been ideal, but pretty expensive - I would have been looking at £50ish to replace all the slats.  A bit out of my budget.

Instead I went to B&Q (I did go to the wood reclaim shop first but didn't find anything appropriate), and bought some softwood lengths that were the appropriate thickness and width.  I only needed 4 lengths (which I would saw in half), but it was cheaper to buy a pack of 6 for £12.  I also bought a tin of stain (opened and therefore discounted to £6) to protect the wood.  I know the softwood probably won't last as long as hardwood would have done, but I'm pleased with how it's turned out.

I cut the softwood lengths in half for the slats and did two coats of stain.

I had predrilled holes in each slat too to make sure that the stain protector got in the holes too.

Some new bolts were necessary, and the job was done!