February 21, 2014

Where Old meets new! what a Union.

The journey of our new deck


Well, it's almost complete. Kevin and Kyle arrived today and at 7am. Can you believe we agreed on that time, on a weekend!It's now 4pm and I think I'm hearing the last screws going into the new roof. It's rained a lot today, and it also really sticky hot. The worst possible building conditions, but they have soldiered on and the end is in sight.

So, here is the journey from the beginning to right now at 4pm.


                                                         When Old meets new.

        

                                              Bearers and posts in. It's a bit overcast
        
            
                                      Looking forward to the Old girls transformation.
         
       
                          I just like this photo, it's like it's framing the beautiful views.  
        
           
                          Sunny days looking across the fields, roof on. Nearly there. 
           

        Balustrade and roof in place. Rainy days, but at least the woodwork is complete
           

                   Undercoat and tops coats onto posts to allow boys to get roof on, 
                                  

                                   Almost finished, just those tricky wee corners.
                                   

                                   IT'S ON ...Both the roof and the rain that is.
                         But the soldiers are marching on. Looking East to West
             

                                                 Looking West to East, Murphy likes it.
          

                   The boys are on the home straight. It's cloudy, but it looks great.
       

         The next photo I post will be of a complete deck, roof an all! Watch this space.
            

February 01, 2014

Summer time and the living is easy

What have we been up to?

We've found the best builders to undertake our veranda job. Kevin and Kyle are local lads who were recommended to us from friends. The boys work really fast and are producing some great results.
The new space is a whopping 15 metres by 3 and it's already clear will add a whole new dimension to the place.
 Laura and Lloyd at "our wee farm" up North have done the same thing and having spent a weekend up at their place last year, we saw what is possible to achieve for your wee piece of heaven. 
 
        
                                                Ready for a makeover little house?
        

                                               Foundations set, not bad for 1 days work.
         
            
                                                  Ready to start laying the deck
        
       
                                  A good sheltered area to share with good friends
        

                                                   Alfresco here we come, not long now.
       
  
                                Stage 3 almost complete. Check out the stunning sky.
         


We will continue to handrail along the three sides and hopefully Kevin will achieve this in the next 3 days. Then the long weekend will be filled with painting the area white. We'll leave the deck as is the fade naturally. The boys will then fit the iron for the roof and that should this job done. We are thinking about taking the kitchen window out and popping a fair of French doors in it's place. This will allow easy access to the deck from kitchen. 

What else can you possibly do in these long hot summer days? Well Brookies tomatoes are ready and we decided to have a go at making sweet chutney... 

                                        First get heaps of yummy, ripe tomatoes
                                      

    Roughly chop em up and place in large pan with 3 chopped onions and half                                                 cup brown soft sugar, water and some veg stock 
          

       After 2 hours of simmering, prepare preserve jars and pop the tasty stuff in. 
       We got 3jars from this.
                         
       

 Catch ya later friends, next update will see a finished deck..yippee.

Maggie.