Chicken Run

Greetings! Much time has gone west lately with one thing and another, but lots of progress has also been made on the chicken run.

These blighters lay lovely eggs, but will also trash the greenhouse given half a chance, and make dust baths in the flower beds, as above.

We need somewhere to lock them away when it suits our purposes, and it has been the plan for some considerable time to turn about a third of the top end of the garden where the vegetable beds are into a chicken run, fit for free-range pampered birds like ours.

Its really starting to take shape now, with the surrounding paths dug out giving access all the way around, and covered with old carpet and cut-up dumpy bags as weed barriers. We have a ton of gravel coming on Monday to make the path. Planks have been screwed onto the posts to lessen the amount of soil the chickens chuck out onto our nice gravel paths.

Happy Saturday

This weekend Arne was away at cub camp. J9 and I got going in the garden. On Saturday, the weather was perfect for lying in a hamock, reading a good book and sipping something long and cool, or if that sounds a bit lazy, perhaps a bit of gardening in a bikini. As for me, I was digging and sweating, mostly.

J9 was happy planting all her brassicas. Sorry about the rubbish picture, but the sun was so bright I couldn't see the screen on the camera.

This bee was happy gathering pollen.

And this Moth was particularly exuberant, performing aerobatics right over the garden!

J9's Good Books

That's what I hope to be in when she sees this. Bet she can't wait to get planting when she gets home tomorrow.

Despite my late night, I was up and at it early this morning, after my porridge and a quick fix of Thunderbirds on the plasma.

Got the last dividing path finished, laid the last few slabs along the back, and made the final raised bed. Now for the chicken run.....

Led Astray

Last night round at Naughty Richard's house. That's Jock in the foreground, he knows every song by AC/DC. I managed, somehow, to escape without a hangover.

Sweat and Dust

Today was just about as sweaty and dusty as days come. I've got dust in my teeth and everywhere else.

Got the fourth veg bed done though, and lots more bricks cleaned. I am now heading for the shower, and then off to be led astray by that naughty Richard.

Outdoors Again

Bit behind with my blogging again. I was working for a while on a Star Wars calendar, but have also been busy in the garden. I built a new compost bin because the old one was in the way of the chicken run I'm going to build.

It is made partly from bits salvaged from the old one, and partly from mesh that I've been meaning to take down for ages, as it was both in the way and an eyesore. I was busy with my angle grinder lots. It just needs a lid now.

In order to build the chicken run, I first needed to widen the path. For this, I had to clean up loads more bricks. I hate cleaning bricks.

Here's the first fence post for the chicken run. Also, you can see I'm edging the path with some nice stones properly set into mortar. One day I'll think of a less labour-intensive way to do something.

Mixing enough mortar to do this bit made me just about the dustiest, hottest, sweatiest dude this side of the Orion Nebula.

All the dog could do was bask in the sunshine. J9 and AJ are away for a few days so I thought I'd better post my progress each day so they can see I'm not slacking and being led astray by that naughty Richard.

This is he.

Huffing and Puffing

We have an enormous cheese plant which has lived in our bedroom since we moved here.

Obviously, it would have been in the way while all the work was going on, such as plastering, carpeting and the like, so with much huffing and puffing (after Janine and I had an argument which I lost), we managed somehow to cram it into the bathroom where it stayed for several weeks while we worked on the bedroom.

Despite me specifically telling it not to grow while it was in there, it gained two leaves and about a foot in height. Consequently, the huffing and puffing on the outward journey was as nothing compared to that which took place when we dragged it back to the bedroom this morning.

Three Chests of Drawers, a Bed and a Mirror.

The furniture I ordered back in January came with uncannily good timing last Friday. It was some weeks late, but so was I. It's all solid oak with no self-assembly flat pack nonsense, so the last thing we wanted was for this lot to be hanging around for weeks with no place to stash it. There are no wardrobes, because the next thing on the jobs list is building some in the dressing room which is the bit beyond Tubs's handrails that you can just see through the gap. These will be built in and made to measure by me, so stand by for some swearing and such.

Revelation 2: The Steps Down to the Dressing Room/EnSuite

Dear DIY fans. Remember this? I posted that almost exactly a year ago. I've been hard at work lately finishing it all off and doing some neat woodwork (borrowed Richard's router, thanks Rich) if I do say so myself.

I spent a lot of time thinking about exactly how the hell I was going to make this tidy and finish it off.

Our pal Tubs (real name Bartholomew, nicknamed Bathtubs, shortened to Tubs) made us a set of beautiful bespoke handrails to stop any drunkards falling down the steps late at night coming home from the pub. I had to work around them as we had them made long before the steps were finished. Here I made some pieces with curved ends for mounting the rails on, glued and clamped them to the steps and screwed to the floor. The skirting is fitted with a bevel cut at the end to fit a piece which will finish it off neatly.

Another piece of wood is cut and moulded with Richard's router which will stick on top. The skirting this side is finished now.

More bits of wood are moulded with the router and cut to trim the sides against the reveal, and some more trim is glued and clamped on to finish the bottom ends.

We decided to paint it to match the skirting, as the wood had joins and bits of filler and grain going in funny directions because of the way the steps are made so it wouldn't have looked so great if we'd left the wood exposed.

The carpet is down and the handrails are finally on. I fixed the wall where it broke up with some very strong render, and it seems to be holding.

Here they are in all their glory. He's brilliant, is Tubs. He bent the twirly bits with his teeth.

Yeah, Baby!

Nice.

Bang Up To Date

All the fuss with the oak was to do with the hearth surround I eventually managed to make. I simply Araldited the corners together and stuck it to the floor with Gripfill. The tiles are oiled and grouted but still without their final beeswax polish.

The stripped and sealed chimney breast and fireplace won't function, but makes a great looking feature. As you can see I've got all the skirting boards back on and painted. The walls are also painted in a shade called "Barley."

The floor is clear and clean ready for the carpet fitters who should be here within an hour or two.

More Woe

Just when triumph seemed within my grasp, when I was finally ready to do the immensely rewarding task of attaching the beautiful bespoke handrails Tubs made for us, the wall decided to disintegrate instead.

Revelation: Mantlepiece

Time to reveal what I did with the scrap oak. After the disaster of cutting the first piece too short, I had a long bit left over, for which I had to find a use. This is it. I guess it looks good, but I still feel like I only just managed to rescue something from the stupid cock-up I made. Hardly a triumph. I have a new bit of oak on order for the purpose which I originally had in mind when I got this bit. I will reveal that in good time....

Nice Bit of Skirt

Before I reveal the use to which that piece of scrap oak has been put, I'll show you what I was up to yesterday. Cleaning up and sanding all the skirting board which is to go back on the bedroom walls. Much of the skirting board which came off all the various walls in the house is a bit knackered, so many rooms will have to have new skirting board. But there's enough reasonably good stuff left for this room.

Air of Despair...

See this piece of wood? Well, being too short for it's purpose by around 20mm, it is an expensive piece of firewood. Planed, dry oak. Only really posh people can afford to burn this stuff.... Of course, you have guessed that (being as I'm not posh) this sad situation came about through incompetence with a tape measure on my part, resulting in a number of things:

1. I was in a strop for most of the day, wanting only to sit and carve the word "IDIOT" across my forehead with a rusty Stanley knife.

2. We got a couple of bits of expensive firewood, as I've already mentioned.

3. I have to contact Hugh who sourced the wood for me and admit what I did, because I now need another piece.

4. I have to find a use for the long bit of leftover scrap oak from which I cut the short piece in the photo, as it is too good to burn.

Painting

A coat of white on the ceiling and walls to seal and prime the new plaster.

We've gone for a bold colour on the back wall which I hope....

.....will give the boudoir a mood for lovin'.....

The Hearth of the Matter

In front of the chimney breast, there was once a stone hearth, now long gone and replaced with some old planks (not proper floor boards) crudely nailed down, making the floor here very uneven.

We decided the best thing to do was to bung down a slab of chipboard and tile it with some nice old looking stone tiles.

Actually, the tiles don't look very old yet, but you wait until they've been grouted, had 2 coats of antique stone oil and a beeswax polish....

Turning the Corner

I'm back! 3 weeks off working, but we're going to see lots of action in the bedroom now. No! Not that kind, you smutty lot....

Always good to go from demolition to rebuilding. I bashed all the damaged bricks out of the chimney breast so here it is all cleaned up and ready to start fixing it up.

Here we go, using bricks reclaimed from other bits of the house we've knocked down....

....Lovely job. Even used lime in the mortar to make that consistent with the rest, since we're going to leave the bricks exposed. Thanks Rich!

The Unexpected

Just when you think your chimney has stopped messing about with unexplained and seemingly unexplainable leaks, the flipping render starts falling off in large chunks. I think when Richard sees this he'll suddenly disappear off the face of the planet, as he likes chimneys even less than plastering. But he can't hide, wherever he is, I'll find him.

Working

Well folks, I just got the go-ahead on some work that's been floating around for a while, so no more house for a few weeks. If you're bored in the meantime, you can check out my other blog (which is also to do with work) by clicking here.