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Author Topic: Project Back Garden Conversion.  (Read 7163 times)

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Drnick

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Project Back Garden Conversion.
« on: May 08, 2018, 07:19:21 pm »
So on the basis that I haven't done anything arcade related for ages but I have been working on projects here I present to you

Project Back yard conversion
Timescale - 2Yrs of Bank holidays and then only when the sun has been shining

I'm a fairly handy guy with powertools and about 8 Years ago I built an 8ft x 6ft Balcony outside my upstairs patio doors, It's built from 150x50 joists 12" off centre and would probably be the only thing left standing if the rest of the house decided to fall down.

Because of this the wife thinks I can do pretty much anything and often sets me challenges to test my skills and patience. (I've very much learned after 28 years of living with my wife that whilst I can Learn the skills, the patience not so much). 

So to start this latest project we go back to April 2016 when the UK actually saw the Sun without any rain and the wife decided we needed a shed/summer house to store our stuff in. I thought it would be a nice simple project and would be cheaper to do it myself then get someone in so got on with coming up with a plan.

The basic plan was to remove the slope from the garden and clear the corner for a shed/summer house. (Wasn't sure if I wanted to build or buy, Wife ended up deciding to buy). 

So here was the garden as of the week or so before Easter 2016, A messy jungle that the cats enjoyed but everyone else hated.


Drnick

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2018, 07:22:30 pm »
Well the wife found a Summer house for £100 which is shown disassembled below (Don't worry it'll be back later) When I bought it I knew it had some issues with a leaky roof, but figured I could just reboard the roof pieces and then refelt (I had some spare 12mm Marine Ply from a bathroom project anyway). 


So me and a friend, we started clearing the slope out,



As we cleared more I figured we may as well just throw it on the top of the garden and sort it out later


I figured I could add all the rest of the rubbish to the pile and then get a skip to remove it all (As it turns out you can't have bigger then a 6Yrd for Earth and getting a permit for keeping one on the road is almost impossible around here. Basically I can get a skip dropped for max 1Hr, fill it up and have it go away again)



Drnick

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2018, 07:25:26 pm »
So It was back and forth to the local tip a few times in the wifes car to get rid of all the crap that had gathered around the garden over the years. (Seriously, where does all this **** come from).



Well after clearing a chunk of the gradiant away I realised that 2 man power alone was not going to cut the mustard, so I let a bunch of friends know that I needed them for a weekend and we rented a micro digger.  I used to Drive forklifts for a living so using this was relatively easy for me. 

We used the machine to remove a lot more earth and during the process unearthed an unknown pipe (Painted Black so in theory carrying electric) you can just about see it in the right hand side of the following pic. (Sorry for my Bro being in the Pic)

and here it is in most of its glory causing panic because I couldn't find an end so we didn't know it was safe to just dig up, we figured it could stay if needed (Needless to say it wasn't)

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2018, 07:26:53 pm »
We then got down to digging our post holes,  In this case our Posts were going to be 3.5 Mtr Railway sleepers sunk approx 1 Mtr into the ground, Well we dug one hole with no issues at all, lovely clay, auger worked beautifully,  The next 2 though we had to fight all the way,  It looks like my post holes go into the stone drainaway, 

I figured the best way round this was as we removed stones from the bottom I use the clay we had an abundance of to shore up the sides. This seemed to work well. We then used the machine to dig out a channel just in front of and between the post holes,  Once we had sunk the posts we poured masses of concrete This gave us the following.


Hey, look theres that bloody pipe, we found the end of it so knew it was safe to be ripped out.  This ramp may not look like much, but when I drove the digger back up it I came to within about 2 degrees of tipping it over onto its back (I had stupidly kept the bucket in close to the cab instead of extending it out as far as possible).  New Pants were ordered and once my heart rate got back below silly speeds I got back into the seat and made my way up and out with the digger.  (If I can find my wifes old phone I may have video of the incident)

Drnick

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2018, 07:30:18 pm »
We then started putting in sleepers behind the upright posts (Hereafter referred to as the monoliths).

We then repeated the process on the other side of the garden and we then have

(the 2 Pieces of wood going from the balcony to the garden were put there as a challenge for my cats,  I'll give them their due, they all used it :).  Seeing it there though planted a seed of an idea for later on.

As the sun rose so did the wall,


And finally Finished



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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2018, 07:32:21 pm »
It pretty much sat that way until the May bank holiday weekends came about, But during those 2 weekends I set my sites on rebuilding the summer house,  I didn't really take any photo's of that and somehow the damned thing would not go back together square, Base was level sitting on sleepers and the first piece went up vertical so the rest should have been OK. Meh,  I do have a feeling that changes I made when I rebuilt the roof made it so it didn't sag in the way it was meant to. this meant it wouldn't go back into place correctly at all. I was damned if I was going to lose though so used some left over joists to basically force the top of the building into square and matching the frame of the roof.

After much harranging, shouting, screaming, jumping up and down and generally throwing tantrums I ended up with the following



 (That roof really was no fun to get on)

You can see in the following picture just how far off of the frame the roof ended up in the back corner, But a bit of wood and some expanding foam soon sorted that out.

Look at all the lovely insulation that I put in to make sure that it is nice and warm in the colder 9 months of the Year in the UK :)

Drnick

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #6 on: May 08, 2018, 07:36:36 pm »
Then It was onto Running Electrics and Plasterboarding
In the next image you can just see the joist beam I used to square the top of the building, (Top of image) It was ultimately wedged in so tight that I just left it there (Oh and word of advice, Don't ever do what I did here with the electric cable, I should have drilled and ran through the uprights, It quite literally caused me a shock much later on when I installed a shelf and caught the cable with a screw). 








Once I had semi completed the shed it was time to sort the area under the balcony and around what I now refer to as Ground Level zero. 
Well first I was going to need some stairs to get into the garden. More Railway Sleepers to the rescue. As for the rest of the ground, we levelled off with some sand then lay weed supressant material and then put down about a tonne of white stone. (I figured may as well keep on with the railway siding theme

Cat acting as a pair of LED Lights in the garden :)

Another cat just wandering around, not bothered by building sites much these guys :)




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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2018, 07:39:48 pm »
I also got around to finishing off the Summer House and decided it wasn't going to get used for storage when I had a much better Idea for it, My little hideaway. 



(I've recently upgraded to a 65" TV in the living room so am using a 46" as my main pc screen,  I can safely say I nearly crapped myself when the full res version of the last image came up on the screen,  I thought I had captured some ghost face killer looking into the shed).  Turns out its just my own reflection in the smoked glass and it washed all colour/features out of my face. You can see very similar reflection in pic 2),  So there we had it, I had completed what I had to do and so I Decided to light the firepit and celebrate completion of the mission (or so I thought).


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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2018, 07:48:52 pm »
Well come the August Bank holiday and I was at a bit of a loss as to what I could do for the weekend,  I should have chosen to sleep, But instead I decided to put in a fire escape walkway to the garden. (This was the plant that was seeded way back with the cats walkway).


There is now a lump of wood that supports between the monolith and the bottom of the walkway. (No photo yet)

There is a railway sleeper that supports this part now (No photo yet)


Safe for cats, but not humans, lets sort that.



(Shows the railing installed) Fabulous Mr Fox (Aka Ballsy) seems to like it too.

Drnick

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2018, 07:52:52 pm »
We now fast forward to May Bank Holiday Weekend 2017,
What to do with the mess that is left of the garden?
Well firstly we went down the route of bagging and stacking as much as humanly possible and then many trips to the tip later I had an area clear enough and level enough to either patio or deck. 

The wife dealt with this dilema too by finding someone who was getting rid of a bunch of decking used inside for a demonstration, so basically brand new unused deck which was about 5Mtrs x 3Mtrs of coverage,  All my photos of this being built got wiped out without a backup so nothing to see here except completed decking :)

Here is the same decking approx 1 year later, only covered in snow that wasn't expected and shouldn't have been happening.

This snow was followed by rain, rain, rain and rain, So when it came to Easter this year I couldn't really work out in the garden because it was just too wet and claggy.  I did get a few days out there though to try and remove some more of the rubbish and to try and sort the hill of earth (now referred to as Mount Moreclay). This gave me the following results.

(The massive stack of wood was ordered for works that were due to start Easter 2018)

Due to all the rain and the inability to do pretty much anything in the garden I decided to build a cat wall in the kitchen (We have a Double height vaulted ceiling open to the Living room area) So now I don't worry when the cats have a fight on the ledge behind the living room sofa.

Drnick

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #10 on: May 08, 2018, 07:55:52 pm »
Eventually the weather improved enough for me to get in the garden and get rid of the final vestiges of mount Moreclay and get some sand down,  Once the sand was down the job became a lot easier (or at the least bearable).




It was then time to get some Decking Down


(One of my cats, Pippin, looking at it all and going. "Well its nice to keep my claws sharpened, but where the hell am I meant to go toilet?"

Drnick

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #11 on: May 08, 2018, 07:58:30 pm »
This Brings us pretty much up to date, Its been the first May Bank Holiday this past weekend so time to complete this job. Not much time on my hands so I didn't get many images taken. 

Yep, More joists installed for the dance floor,  (I would imagine that there are well over 1000 hidden Screws in this entire job)
And finally I made it to the weird corner where I shall be building a shed, I built this part from the same materials as I used to do the balcony, I think the shed should be good to go)
Framing

Boarded

(The board which is sitting up needs recutting, I was too lazy to do tonight as needs a 45 and a 90 cutting into it)

Look down length of garden

Look Ma, I completed it.  (Another of my cats (Flint) Is looking for the litter tray coz it must be here somewhere what with all the sawdust smells).

So just in Time to Celebrate 20Yrs of Marriage I can tick another task off my list. 

I will update this thread again after the Late May holiday as during that weekend I hope to remove the existing walkway and put in stairs down to a platform and also get started on the building of an actual storage shed down the end of the garden.  I'm truly hoping that it doesn't take 2 Years to complete :)

Drnick

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #12 on: May 08, 2018, 08:00:18 pm »
TLDR,  Built wall, Built Shed, Built Fireescape/Walkway, Decked Garden, More to Come in future.

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #13 on: May 09, 2018, 12:52:37 pm »
where are you putting fire pit?
Cutting a circle in the deck? :)

also it looks small until you have a pic of someone standing in the middle of it to give the whole thing scale.
Lot's of work.

Looks a lot nicer also.
I had dirt and whatever lawn could grow under the trees before I built my deck.
just so much better.

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #14 on: May 09, 2018, 04:22:58 pm »
As for the Firepit, Yep, gonna cut a hole and pop it in. Just have to figure out where I'm going to have things.  It's weird having so much room out there to put things,  Wifes immediately, Oh we can have a gazebo here and a hot tub here and a corner seat over here and the bbq over there :)  I think my wallets going to be taking a battering this summer.

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #15 on: May 10, 2018, 07:23:46 am »
Lot of good work going on there Drnick!
I like the way you use those railroad sleepers (Ive always heard them called "ties")

Question about the fox: is he a regular visitor? Will he come up to you? Ive always liked foxes but avoid hem in the wild, Ive always heard they were bad about carrying rabies.

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #16 on: May 10, 2018, 02:30:41 pm »
Luckily we still have no rabies in the UK, (The joys of being on an island with strict quarantine rules). Foxes here though do have various mange's and stuff that I worry about them transferring to the cats, but other then that I don't have a problem with them.  Yep that one in the photo is a regular visitor, He has actually stuck his nose into the house a few times, I quickly shoo him off when he does that though.  I don't mind him sleeping on the shed or in the garden but I draw the line at him coming into the house :)  He won't come up to people but he won't run away scared from them either. 

As for the Sleepers/ties, I've never once built a brick wall that had to hold back any kind of weight so that was out of the equation. and once I actually figured out the sheer mass I had to hold back I knew that I had to use something chunky :) I just measured the wall and it is 18Ft across and 5Ft High :)

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #17 on: May 11, 2018, 07:46:20 pm »
I like the wooden path/walkway.
Giving me ideas.

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #18 on: May 12, 2018, 02:28:15 am »
I like the wooden path/walkway.
Giving me ideas.
The only drawback to if for me is the fact it puts my head about 16ft up in the air so massively overlooking the neighbours.  I didn't think it would get much use except for the cats,  I was wrong.  That's the reason for the upcoming works where I will replace with stairs straight off of the balcony down to a platform and some more stairs to ground level zero.

So what idea you getting?
 

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #19 on: May 12, 2018, 10:09:06 am »
I like the wooden path/walkway.
Giving me ideas.
The only drawback to if for me is the fact it puts my head about 16ft up in the air so massively overlooking the neighbours.  I didn't think it would get much use except for the cats,  I was wrong.  That's the reason for the upcoming works where I will replace with stairs straight off of the balcony down to a platform and some more stairs to ground level zero.

So what idea you getting?
 

I have paving stones on the ground off the deck leading to the back yard. (mostly so people don't step on a land mine left by the dog) :)

some are cracked, the ground slopes a little also but only by about 3 inches. still the stones are not level and i'd need to get some earth in there to make them level.
Or a lot of pea stone and some timbers.

Thinking of making a wooden path instead now.

Drnick

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #20 on: May 12, 2018, 07:27:49 pm »
I have paving stones on the ground off the deck leading to the back yard. (mostly so people don't step on a land mine left by the dog) :)

some are cracked, the ground slopes a little also but only by about 3 inches. still the stones are not level and i'd need to get some earth in there to make them level.
Or a lot of pea stone and some timbers.

Thinking of making a wooden path instead now.
Glad to see the thread was useful to someone :)
Shouldn't be too hard to lose 3 inches with a walkway, depending on how short/long the  walkway is you may even be able to get away with 2 x 4's 

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #21 on: July 23, 2018, 02:36:09 pm »
So it has been a while since I updated the garden work, so here we go another bunch of updates:)

I always knew I needed somewhere to put all my tools so got to work on building the shed,  But before I could begin the wife wanted me to get a hot tub, so we did,  I could have done without it as I ended up having to work around it but what can you do,  Happy wife, Happy life :)

Here it is all filled up and ready for use as a plunge pool (It takes so long to heat up that its almost never hot)

 
She then wanted me to tidy up the front of the house so I got on with that. Didn't take more than an afternoon and is almost 0 maintenance.


Now onto the shed,  Once again I was a bit lazy with photo's but managed to get a few during the build.

Base built,  Designed with internal dimensions of 6ftx4ft


Walls built,  approx 5ft5 high by 6ft long



Starting to frame the front, Made door height 6ft because I am fed up of cracking top of head on doors that are not quite tall enough.


Cladding started and pretty much complete.


It was round about now that I found that the unit would not actually fit where I wanted it to,  At this stage I had to remove about 7" from one side of the base and the entire back of the shed.  I chewed though my skillsaw blade doing this, but managed to get it cut down to size where it would fit.
I then set about putting roof trusses in,  of course setting the door to 6ft and chopping 7" off one side meant it looks a bit odd, but it is functional.


Got the boarding installed to the roof, clad the front, re-board and clad the back again after the shed had the trim.



Finally built and installed a door, installed shelving and hooks etc and started to fill the shed,  I need a bigger shed :)  Here you can see why I built it with a 45degree pitched roof,  I wanted to maximise storage for all the random boxes the wife has collected over the years. I knew my tools would take all available space at floor to 5ft 5 level :)



To finish off this particular stage of the garden makeover I installed some new fence panels to match the ones the neighbour installed a little while back.  This was fun as we uncovered a ground wasp nest which had to die before I was going to install any posts/panels. 


So thats where I am at currently,  still to do is renew the lower deck, move the hot tub down to renewed deck, install gazebo, remove walkway and install new stairs from balcony. Being a one man team in the current english weather means everything is being done in slow motion but it is getting done.




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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #22 on: July 23, 2018, 02:39:38 pm »
What in the crap are you doing? Where is the ground?

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #23 on: July 23, 2018, 02:54:21 pm »
The ground is gone, I have no use for it (Other than to support the deck)  I don't do weeding at all and the wife can kill plastic plants (That is not too much of an exaggeration either.) As you can see from the first pictures it wasn't exactly Kew gardens :)

I do have a couple of large planters up on the balcony which are in full bloom and healthy enough though. And if I want to go see some green green grass and trees I can walk 500 yards up the road to the back end of the local forest.

In place of the ground I now have a level workspace which without the hot tub in the way will be about 15ft x 15 ft and another of about 10ft by 10ft. As previous to that I would either have to work in the kitchen or under the balcony which is at best 8ft wide x 7ft long x 8ft high I'm gonna go with ground loss :)   

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #24 on: July 23, 2018, 04:15:39 pm »
I looked at everything, and I still don't know what you built. This isn't about all of your hard work, it's about me not figuring it out.  :laugh2:
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #25 on: July 23, 2018, 04:33:37 pm »
I looked at everything, and I still don't know what you built. This isn't about all of your hard work, it's about me not figuring it out.  :laugh2:

So you are not seeing the wooden building that appeared?, It could be called a shed, It could be called a post modernistic take on an outhouse. (Nope, there's no toilet installed)  It could be a portal to another reality. (Nope, that would be a wardrobe). 

Its basically about 50sq ft of storage for all the power and hand tools I have accumulated. and about 20sq ft of loft space for boxes and the like. It's been over-engineered, built to outlast me and taken way way too long to complete. I'll get round to adding a photo of the inside at some point to help you with figuring it out if you like, But just imagine some shelving full of toolboxes.  :laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2:   

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #26 on: July 23, 2018, 05:48:29 pm »
Sorry man. That came off pretty jerky. I was just shocked to see the entire yard swallowed up.

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #27 on: July 23, 2018, 09:13:30 pm »
I looked at everything, and I still don't know what you built. This isn't about all of your hard work, it's about me not figuring it out.  :laugh2:

So you are not seeing the wooden building that appeared?, It could be called a shed, It could be called a post modernistic take on an outhouse. (Nope, there's no toilet installed)  It could be a portal to another reality. (Nope, that would be a wardrobe). 

Its basically about 50sq ft of storage for all the power and hand tools I have accumulated. and about 20sq ft of loft space for boxes and the like. It's been over-engineered, built to outlast me and taken way way too long to complete. I'll get round to adding a photo of the inside at some point to help you with figuring it out if you like, But just imagine some shelving full of toolboxes.  :laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2:   


Looks like a lot of hard work... great job.  :applaud:
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

Drnick

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Re: Project Back Garden Conversion.
« Reply #28 on: October 01, 2019, 01:56:20 pm »
Well summer came around again and I got back on with the garden sort out. I really really wanted my summerhouse and hallway back so figured it was this summer or never.  :laugh2:  I was hoping to have been made redundant by the time I took this up again, but that hasn't happened yet  >:D >:D

This Brings us pretty much up to date, Its been the first May Bank Holiday this past weekend so time to complete this job. Not much time on my hands so I didn't get many images taken. 
I will update this thread again after the Late May holiday as during that weekend I hope to remove the existing walkway and put in stairs down to a platform and also get started on the building of an actual storage shed down the end of the garden.  I'm truly hoping that it doesn't take 2 Years to complete :)
  I may have hoped this wasn't going to take 2 years to complete, but I guess it is :)

So when I last left this project the bottom level of deck was running vertically,  It was also sagging and had sunk about 4 inches. This is unsurprising as I only put it in for somewhere to put the wood I would be using to build the top deck, Well having finished the upper deck last year this year I could now pull the bottom level up, beef up the joists and add where required so I could change the run of the decking to horizontal.

Before I could do anything more than pry most of the old boards up I once again ran into those wonderful little buggers known as Wasps,
.
I didn't bother messing about with these too much,  a couple of can's of nest killer got rid of most, the rest died when I soaked it all with petrol and lit a match. Gotta admit the noise coming from the nest when I sprayed it with Petrol was a little unsettling but the Little fireflies in the sky more than made up for it :)

Shortly after starting the new decking.

Finished with the decking (until walkway stairs come out).

Installed Gazebo and setup hot tub :)


I then had to deal with the transition from lower deck to upper deck, this was always going to be a pain in the posterior, as the upper deck has a much more severe slope than the bottom has.
You can see from left to right about a 1" rise on the piece I had to cut.

Look at the bow on that piece of decking :)

Lights being tested.

I have now cut the upper face piece to fit the height, but whatever I do it won't ever look right, Luckily the only time you notice it is when you go up the stairs to the deck.


I must say that being a one man crew and doing this is getting to be a bit of a drag,  there are so many times that I need someone else who can understand the basics of DIY but they are not around or unavailable. I can't ask the wife to help she can't use a spirit level, she can't use a drill, she struggles to hold anything heavier then a few KG.  Oh well At least I have the joy of knowing it was all my own work.
So still to complete,  remove existing walkway and stairs, Install stairs directly to balcony and build small landing for stairs to go to.  Well I can safely say that is not going to happen this year, Maybe we will have a decent spring and I can do it over Easter, but don't hold your breath :)  See you next year for some more updates.