The ups and downs of renovating a house

The updated back garden

mrsukyankee — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:59:25 +0000

We have finally put the stone around the outside of our yard…and we’ve gotten a lovely shed to hold all sorts of stuff. It’s looking pretty good out there:

We’re very happy with it. Next step…lighting!

The new lawn

mrsukyankee — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:47:38 +0000

The new lawn, thanks to HiTech Turf, looks great. It’s a bit ‘carpety’ because we hadn’t really walked on it much before taking the pic. But it’s soft and comfy and looks fantastic…just think, a green lawn all year long. As you can see, we also got some new garden furniture…so it’s definitely barbeque time!

The lawn is quite tough…so we think it will be great for whatever dog we get. And it’s already been tested as somewhere to play a bit of cricket with a tennis ball.

I look forward to sitting out in the garden on my sun lounger, which looks a lot like this one:

A short countdown…

mrsukyankee — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:08:01 +0000

We have only a few more weeks until the back garden will be finished. We began the process of removing the rubble yesterday, getting rid of over half the bags. Here’s what we have left:

We are lucky that our local council sponsors a recycling centre where we can dump building materials as well as almost any other thing you can carry to it.

On June 11th, we’ll be having our artificial lawn installed by Hi-Tech Turf. We are getting the HT Premier, which looks very realistic and feels VERY soft.

Next year we’re hoping to put decking over the space where the concrete is located, but for now, it’s a good enough surface for us to use for eating/bbq.

Getting there…

mrsukyankee — Sun, 03 May 2009 12:59:24 +0000

I haven’t taken a lot of pictures lately and we’ve really only had time to work on the weekends, but we’re getting there, slowly but surely. At this point we’ve taken out as much brick and tile as we can; we’ve taken up all the weed sheet & spread the rock; all the topsoil has been spread; weed killer has been sprayed.

What’s left to do? Buy sand & weed sheet. Remove the lean-to & put a shed in its place. Buy the lawn. And here’s the kicker. After talking to a bunch of dog owners who have back gardens like ours, we’ve moved toward putting in artificial grass. Ease (neither DH nor I are into gardening at all & actually ‘hate’ it), attractiveness (you’d be amazed how great the best artificial lawns look) and the fact that we can clean it easily (dog poo & pee and all) while also keeping it looking lovely have all contributed to this decision. We got to look at what happens to many yards with before & after pics, and we were convinced. I’m sure some people will be horrified, but for us it’s the right decision. We’ll save money on care & also not have to use water to keep it looking good if we have a dry or warm summer.

So here are a few more pics from the past two weeks (the ivy we’ve decided to keep & the levelling of the garden)…I’ll start with the ‘before pic’ and show you where we are now:

Day 6 – the light day

mrsukyankee — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:07:27 +0000

Due to my DH playing golf (which he deserved) and it being sunny (so wanted to enjoy it)…as well as studying for my Life in UK test…not a lot of work got done today. But I did finish pulling up the tiles from the ground, bagged them up & filled in the trenches.

These filled up 3 bags!

Trench filled in! (and my dirty boots)

I’ll be doing an hour here or there as the week goes on…and then DH & I will end up doing work on the weekends like normal people. I’ll post as we go on…

Day 5 – taking up tile & weed block fabric

mrsukyankee — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:01:28 +0000

The previous owners made a small stone pathway in the middle of the garden to the very back. They put these little (pain in the butt) stone on top of a weed block fabric…all of which had weed growing on top of it…though only a few had gotten through the entire fabric to grown into the ground. But I have to say, it’s been a pain to get rid of.

On the side of this path, the owners put tiles into the ground…DEEP into the ground. What a pain to get out – had to dig big ditches on either side to be able to break them up & remove them. It’s not all done, but a lot was!

A few of the tiles I broke up.

The ditch beginning…you can see pieces of tile still within.

Digging the ditch.

Rolls of the weed block fabric, stone & whatnot on top…next to a bag of decorative (argh) stone.

The path where some of the stuff was removed…you can see where it hasn’t been.

Day 4 – yes, we even work on Easter Sunday…(sorry grandma)

mrsukyankee — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:23:47 +0000

As you can see, we’re pretty much filled the green waste in the last four days. I removed a TON of green stuff today from this area:

You can also see in that pic a few of the lovely bags that we’re filled with brick & concrete. Here’s the full view:

Some of those bricks came from the area that Roy attacked…the right side raised bed is now gone!

What’s left? The stone walkway which goes all the way to the back of the yard and a lot of green stuff (we’ll over fill the green recycling bin…).

Happy Easter!

Day 3 – the back garden continues

mrsukyankee — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:04:18 +0000

Despite back pain and broken nails, Liane and Roy have continued on with their back garden/yard work. It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t look like much has been done in the hours spent…but really – a lot has been (considering it’s their holiday!)

The whole right side of the garden in front of the round raised bed was dug up & roots (way too many of them) were removed. We got at most of them, though a few are too close to the concrete for us to get at…need more tools!

This is dirt we dumped in the place where we removed the plants.

This is where the dirt came from. We removed most of the dirt so that Roy can get rid of the brick – he needs room to knock ‘em out.

Finally – we removed the rest of the brick from the left side raised bed…we now have 22 rubble bags full of brick, plus more brick too big for the bags just hanging out.

We were able to push a bunch of the dirt to the fence, making it easier to knock out the rest of the brick.

So – Day 4 tomorrow. Won’t have as much time to do stuff…but hope to knock down the rest of the brick & pull up the tiles they used to line the walk-way.

Progress on the back garden (yard)

mrsukyankee — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:00:45 +0000

The back yard/garden before…in all its London late winter glory.

The back yard/garden now after two half days of working on it:

Most of the brick is gone on the left raised bed…and a lot of the topsoil. So much more to go to get it ready to lay down topsoil and lawn…

Getting organized

mrsukyankee — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:54:30 +0000

We have recently added a few things to the house…and they are helping us organize all our random ‘stuff’. First we bought a new bookcase. I love it as it’s HUGE and a bit different. It’s dark brown which goes nicely in our study. We haven’t moved all our books there or put all our files in the filing cabinet yet – but we’re on our way!

We also put up two shelves in our kitchen/diner. I wanted a place to put cookbooks (growing collection) as well as wine & a few decorative items. I LOVE them…they go great with all our furniture. And I added a few pics underneath the shelves.

And finally – we got up a coat rack. Yay! No more coats hanging all over the place!