Home improvements - time the house had some TLC!

[raleighnut]

It is very tricky to get both pins to be loadbearing. You can install the upper pin inverted to resist lifting the gate. My installation seems to have one pin with vertical loadbearing and the other supporting horizontal loads.

Yep every gate is different, for instance when I worked on Watermead Park for a year every monday during the summer I'd have to fit between 2 and 6* wooden '5 bar' field gates due to kids nicking cars and driving through them (these cars were then either driven into the lakes/canal or river Soar or burnt out in one of the car parks) luckily the 6" posts generally survived

* 6 was a bit of a record, 2-3 was common.

 

[JhnBssll]

Did some odd jobs outside today. Since the temperature is due to stay above 5 degrees for the next few days I took the opportunity to fix the loose slabs and point in between them all. Whilst I had the SBR out and some mortar mixed I also laid the last bit of slate coping to the raised bed...

I spent the afternoon bagging up rubble and rubbish from the back garden and loading the van, then went off to the tip late afternoon. I stopped off at the garden centre on the way home and picked up 15 bags of top soil and emptied it in to the front bed, along with the remains of a bag of compost I had laying around. It needs to come up a bit more, another 10 bags or so I reckon 😊

Its now raining so should settle overnight, I'll see where we are in the morning

 

[JhnBssll]

Big day today, I've finally finished the driveway and raised bed The last few corner blocks were cut and cemented in place this morning and another 10 bags of top soil purchased to top up the raised bed. MrsBssll is currently working out which plants to fill it with but until then I can get back on with finishing the kitchen off and think about getting up the ladder to sort the porch roof

We'll likely start some soft of eclectic pot collection to break up the greys and blacks at some point 😊

 

[Colin Grigson]

Big day today, I've finally finished the driveway and raised bed The last few corner blocks were cut and cemented in place this morning and another 10 bags of top soil purchased to top up the raised bed. MrsBssll is currently working out which plants to fill it with but until then I can get back on with finishing the kitchen off and think about getting up the ladder to sort the porch roof

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We'll likely start some soft of eclectic pot collection to break up the greys and blacks at some point 😊

That looks fantastic John - you can feel justifiably proud of it every time you come home …. well once the porch flashing is finished

 

[jowwy]

Top work…….but still 9 more jobs to complete before the year is out. Chop chop john……

 

[JhnBssll]

I got some plants in the raised bed today 😄 I'm not exactly a gardener so hopefully they'll survive being planted at this time of year

Put a Clematis in to climb up a (yet to be purchased) trellis on the end wall of the new porch plus some Lavender, a Rhododendron and a couple of champagne Hebe's 😄 Better than an empty patch of soil anyway

I'm thinking of getting a second type of Clematis to train up the same trellis so there are eventually two types of flower... I will wait and see how this one fairs first

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I reckon there's loads of blokes avidly reading this thread, that rapidly switch over to a porn page when their wife walks in to see what they're viewing before she gets any bright ideas.

 

[Gunk]

I got some plants in the raised bed today 😄 I'm not exactly a gardener so hopefully they'll survive being planted at this time of year

Put a Clematis in to climb up a (yet to be purchased) trellis on the end wall of the new porch plus some Lavender, a Rhododendron and a couple of champagne Hebe's 😄 Better than an empty patch of soil anyway

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I'm thinking of getting a second type of Clematis to train up the same trellis so there are eventually two types of flower... I will wait and see how this one fairs first

You certainly didn’t exercise your usually extravagance when choosing the plants John

 

[JhnBssll]

You certainly didn’t exercise your usually extravagance when choosing the plants John

I've made the mistake of filling a flower bed with small plants before and watching them grow and overwhelm each other I'm not much of a gardener, normally just a garden tidier 😋

 

[Kingfisher101]

The house and the windows and door are really nice. I don't like the flower bed but its personal taste, I'd worry about damp going into the house eventually.The drive way looks nice as well.

 

[JhnBssll]

Appreciate its not to everyone's taste 😊 The flower bed is actually the only bit that's still at the original ground level, everything else has been dug out. Its below the damp course so no fear of damp entering the internal space

 

[Kingfisher101]

I reckon there's loads of blokes avidly reading this thread, that rapidly switch over to a porn page when their wife walks in to see what they're viewing before she gets any bright ideas.

I actually know 2 women who could do that themselves no bother. One is a Technology teacher and she could do anything on a house.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I actually know 2 women who could do that themselves no bother. One is a Technology teacher and she could do anything on a house.

I know several that don't just teach, they do that sort of thing in reality for a living, but I was more making a flippant remark than wanting to cause any gender issues.

 

[JhnBssll]

Shuffle the car on the drive yesterday to make room to park the van down the side so I could load up all the remaining paving blocks to take to a friends house - handy to know I can fit two decent sized cars out the front now! With the blocks now gone I can start to think about tidying the back garden a bit

I've bought a small bit of trellis for the Clematis, just need to screw it to the wall now

 

[JhnBssll]

I popped the trellis up this afternoon 😄 It was getting dark by the time I'd finished work for the day so apologies for the poor photo

I finish work for the year at lunchtime tomorrow so will have some time to spend on projects in the next few weeks 😄