July 11th 2015 - Staining the decking

July 11th 2015 - Staining the decking

I have 9 days until my friend is coming to stay, this means that the house needs blitzing from top to bottom, most of this can wait until the day before she gets here as will only end up a mess again with the kids.  But it also means that I only have 9 days to make the garden safe for her children (mine know its not completely safe and where they can/cant go etc.)

1 of the jobs that needs doing is the decking to be finished (we have 3 rows to do).  But I can stain the part of it that is finished.  We bought some ronseal wood stain the other week (£24 in b&q, same stuff in home bargains £8.99!)  Yep I can cope with that. I also bought a tin of varnish from £1 shop that I am going to put over the top as a sealant.

before stain

during stain

after stain

May 1st 2015 - Pallet Bench

May 1st 2015 - Pallet Bench

Me and hubby have made a Pallet Bench to go on the decking similar to that of the pin - except we only have 1 part and no back on it.  We are going to make a 2nd one as well.  But the wind got up and was really cold despite the sun shining.

We also ran out of metal mending plates to hold them together so cant do anything until we get some more.  It also needs varnishing but this can wait until they are both made.

We added extra pieces of wood (from the pallet) into the gaps so that the top is a solid seat as more comfortable than the gaps in a pallet.  We cut it down so it's only as wide as the 1 section of the 2cross bits (see pic as they form front and back piece of wood).  The legs were made from the bottom part of the pallet.  it's no higher than a normal garden chair.

April 23rd 2015 - Decking Squares

April 23rd 2015 - Decking Squares

If you have been following any of my blog you will be aware that we are in the process of building a decking.  This has been a long process as we have had to dig out loads of soil from part of garden to move to opposite end as garden is on a slope.  Hubby says I have got to be the only person that can buy a house that is on a hillside with a sloping garden and then want a patio (we did last year) and a decking that is also flat!

We started buying the decking squares last year every time we went to the big town (we are in a harbour town with minimal shops) where b&q is.  They have varied in price from £2.52 each to £2.97 and a few were on offer at 2 for £5.  I noticed yesterday that b&q had the decking squares we are using reduced to £2 each, I know that isn't much of a saving, but when your doing a big area on a limited budget it helps. 

I transferred £16 from the savings account (now has £2 in it!) and hubby got £4 for his petrol to a meeting today, I was given £10 that a friend owed me yesterday and we were going to use £10 from main bank account so £30 in total and 15 squares, when we got there they only had 25 squares (I needed 35 to complete area) so we bought all 25, yes it cost us more than we had planned BUT we don't know when they will be getting any more in stock - its a "as and when they arrive item" according to the store. 

We are stuck however, we don't have the wood for the frame work so work has had to stop until next week when hubby gets paid so we can buy some more timber lengths and carry on again.  I will have a decking by summer, but today and the past week has been like summer - very hot, garden thermometer is reading 26C.  If we have temps like that in April what is July and August going be???  I can't wait!

Today I have been sat around in the sun doing not a lot as I have re-hurt my knee after doing lots of walking and standing yesterday.  But I can cope with lounging around in the sun!!

April18th 2015 - Start of the decking

April 18th 2015 - Start of the decking

The sun is shining again today and is actually quite hot, 1/3 kids has shorts on and I have 3/4 trousers on.  All is looking good weather wise and I hope it stays and we have it right through til the end of summer!

After we dug out mud the other day in readiness for the decking today hubby went and bought some timber so that we can start making the decking frame work in order to put the decking squares onto.  Easier said than done!  It's very easy to do if you have a square/rectangular, flat area in which to do it, I know this as we had the above at our old house.  However the garden here is on a slope (why we had to dig out) and we are building around a jagged stone wall and concrete steps, plus the garden isn't straight!

We will succeed and I will have a decking by summer!