First-time house renovation

latecomer

They are gorgeous - which one is yours

jimbugalee

We won't know which one ours is until 5 or 6 weeks time when the breeder chooses. We know it's def a boy though There's 10 in the litter!

Dogs, esp puppies are such hard work. Our lives are gonna change loads for the few few months (and maybe forever more?!) Pleased it's a summer pup though

TomsMom

Puppies are so cute, it's a shame they have to grow up really :rotfl: , for the cuteness factor that's all - I'm a dog lover, we had them for 25 years. We have a cat now, they're mostly self sufficient, don't need walkies and you can usually find someone willing to look after them when you're on holiday rather than paying kennel fees.

latecomer

I'm fairly certain OH is going to want one while she is off on maternity but we'll see how things go with that first. Better not show her that pic

suisidevw

I'd imagine a puppy is awesome but very much like having a baby (having to take it out for a wee every 30 mins or whatever!). Hopefully in the future but at present we both work so wouldn't be practical. Those puppies are gorgeous Jim!

Our dog we rescued Alfie is so well behaved and obedient we were away last weekend at my brothers weddind and we had more than one offer to look after him! Easy stuff if they are good! In comparison, friends have a choc lab that is a right rascal and noone wants to look after her!

aliasojo

Bless! You can almost feel how soft they are. I love watching puppies together, they just don't care and clamber all over each other.






*drums fingers on table waiting for stolt's garden pics*

stolt

hope everyone had a good weekend with whatever they have been doing, beautiful weather this weekend, ive bunrt my head again!! had the artificial grass people round today, despite me have a few drinks last night for my nephews birthday and getting back from London about 1.30 this morning i still managed to haul myself out of bed as the grass was coming at 9am, instead they had a tyre blown and didnt get here to til 2pm, made a start the garden furntiture and the dreaded gabions,,,, whos idea were they - they just take so long to do. But I'll keep telling myself they will be worth it.
Gabions are just sitting there, thats a job for next week!

andrew-b

Wow stolt, having the lawn makes a big difference! Jealous that your lawn is maintenance free too lol.

Here i'm a bit further behind on the garden transformation though it's looking somewhat tidier.

Levelling out the sub-base was alot more effort than i reckoned on. Couple of photos mid way through the levelling-out:




The lines are an old drainpipe and wooden posts buried and levelled to use as screed guides. Had to reposition the guides a couple of times as weren't long enough then at the end removed and backfilled holes left.

Also cut out a strip of turf for the shed (will be much easier to mow too). Plus you can see the rubble pile is disappearing.

Today i laid out the membrane for the base and set out the ecobase tiles. Quite simple to slot together. Took quite a while though fitting the "ecopins" - plastic pins to hold the tiles tightly jointed together.




There's a bit of a big issue in that i had intended to have the shed door opening onto the rest of the patio area but because the level is so much higher and i don't fancy breaking out another 100square feet of concrete the plan is to turn the shed round so the door opens towards the lawn. Along the jagged concrete edge i'm going to break out more concrete (no more please!!!) about 2 feet to the next row of embedded paving slabs to make a nicer edge then will add log roll edge and fill between the higher patio and shed with gravel - expect will use it as a bed for some potted plants.

stolt

andrew-b wrote: »

Wow stolt, having the lawn makes a big difference! Jealous that your lawn is maintenance free too lol.

Here i'm a bit further behind on the garden transformation though it's looking somewhat tidier.

Levelling out the sub-base was alot more effort than i reckoned on. Couple of photos mid way through the levelling-out:




The lines are an old drainpipe and wooden posts buried and levelled to use as screed guides. Had to reposition the guides a couple of times as weren't long enough then at the end removed and backfilled holes left.

Also cut out a strip of turf for the shed (will be much easier to mow too). Plus you can see the rubble pile is disappearing.

Today i laid out the membrane for the base and set out the ecobase tiles. Quite simple to slot together. Took quite a while though fitting the "ecopins" - plastic pins to hold the tiles tightly jointed together.




There's a bit of a big issue in that i had intended to have the shed door opening onto the rest of the patio area but because the level is so much higher and i don't fancy breaking out another 100square feet of concrete the plan is to turn the shed round so the door opens towards the lawn. Along the jagged concrete edge i'm going to break out more concrete (no more please!!!) about 2 feet to the next row of embedded paving slabs to make a nicer edge then will add log roll edge and fill between the higher patio and shed with gravel - expect will use it as a bed for some potted plants.

yep, no more mowing or watering, looks amazing when its first been laid just the greeness of lawn it makes a garden. Your cming on though, hell of a lot of rubble though, and when you start something like that on your own you never think its going to come to a end. Are you putting your shed up on your own?

ukmaggie45

Andy, wish I'd known about the ecobase stuff before OH laid the paving base for our shed! We're using the base as a patio until the shed arrives on Friday.



It's really nice sitting up there, looking across to the veg garden, and down to the house. Gets the sunlight for the longest time in the evening. Been trying to persuade OH to build another base so we could keep the little patio, but we can't figure out anywhere else the shed could go.



We've had a couple of meetings with Plan Man, first was last Friday. We'd had the initial drawings for about a week, to think about what we want to do with the upstairs extension (1 room, but could be 2 or have an en suite. We've pencilled in having a bifold door on what is now the morning room (will become part of kitchen) as well as increasing the opening in the back living room by about a foot each side and having bifold doors there too. (would also like to drop the kitchen window so it's level with the sink, but can't remember if we mentioned that as I'm finding the planning side really stressful, the meetings especially, despite Plan Man being really nice and full of interesting stories)



The bombshell was that we won't be keeping to the same footprint as the garage (to become utility room) and morning room. Builder is going to demolish, and rebuild with the garage a bit wider and the morning room narrower, so the side wall will be straight rather than stepped as it is now. (easier to get planning, and also will be cheaper)

We have a plain glass window in the side of the current morning room, and we may be able to keep that. Although it's on the side of the house, it looks out onto a tall fence rather than straight into next door's property (and they have some unobscured glass on their side I think).

We're also going to extend the front porch forward by the maximum allowed, which I think is 1.25 metres, but don't quote me on that!

Sunday afternoon (gosh, that's only yesterday, so much seems to be happening here it feels longer ago than that!) Plan Man came back with some drawings of suggested layouts for the extension. We think we'll have a downstairs shower and toilet off the back or side of the utility room, with entrance from house to utility off hallway, and also access out to the patio. With twin boy grandchildren expected soon we figured it might be a good idea to have a shower room accessible without having to go through the house!

I am exhausted after doing lots of gardening over the last week. I'm still raking the moss out of the lawn! Do it a few minutes a time, and then have a rest and do something less energy sapping for a while, rest and then do a bit more raking. Most days I get a good half trug out, some days even more. Have lost track of how long I've been doing this now! Definitely an elephant task!

OH has taken out another bush that was too close to the shed site, dug a bean trench and filled it with compost from the dalek at home (transported 2 and a half trugs full over to the garden on Saturday), and dug a deep trench and planted more potatoes with compost and organic potato granules (Blue Danube this time).



I cleared some ivy and holly from a newly discovered ornamental quince (we think) on the far boundary, and found another honeysuckle too (we think). Yesterday I planted some onions.



Visited DD (looking extremely large now! :eek: ) after the afternoon in the garden, rather later than intended due to Plan Man's visit, followed by next door neighbours coming over to look at current plans. They have invited us to go in and see how they've changed their house, but because we were already running late we'll go another time. OH planted some potatoes (Blue Danube and Charlottes)and red and white onions in DD's veg plots, and we had tea in the garden. Very strange with no planes - they are on the flight path for Speke so usually have loads going over really low.

It's a bit grey here this morning, so I think I'll prob have a day off from the garden and try to rest up and recover a bit.

Stolt, love the green grass roof on the Wendy House! :T

Latecomer, hope the scaffolding came down OK and the builders weren't too confrontational. Fingers crossed things go better from now on.