Photos and updates of the work we have put in to developing our Victorian home

Monday, August 28, 2006

Fortress!

The neighbour at the back has decided to build a fortress of a fence to keep everything out! She claims that children are vandalising her garden although i have never seen any doing so. She's been less than civil when i've suggested reconsidering the height of it. Good excuse to plant more climbers ;)



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Clematis Armandii

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Here she is now with one summer behind her. If she carries on like this she'll rival the swathes i've seen in Ladbroke Grove.

Backgarden Update

Lotsa stuff being happeing in the back garden. We have waited to plant some parts of it as we wanted to wait until some of the inherited plants had had a time there so we could see whether we wanted to keep them, such as the rhubarb. We've since dug over most of it and removed all of the weeds and planted quite a few more plants. The clematis Armandii has done incredibly well this summer and seems to love it's full sun position with cool roots. The hydrangea has proved a gorgeous contrast to our newly erected back fence which we decided to paint green to blend with the back and front doors. The lonicera looks like it will need another year to really show off but the caeoanthus and callicarpa both have grown enormously and i can't wait to see the latters berries this autumn. We have stripped the outside of the kitchen windows and have filled and painted them. We just need to finish filling around the windows and they will be finished bar the one pane we managed to crack in the process ;) Have to be careful with heat guns and glass.

The windows

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The back fence

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the new fence and flowering beds

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Caeonathus, Callicarpa, Lonicera, Osteospermum, Rose, Myosotis, Alpine Rose

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Kitchen Update

We have been living in a squat pretty much for a year now. A few weeks ago a couple of friends came up and helped us out with removing the lead piping from the kitchen and replacing the piping that ran upstairs to the bathroom. This has meant that we are now able to plasterboard the kitchen as there is nothing else to take out now. We have started with the ceiling this weekend with the intention of getting the walls done in the next couple of weeks.

This is the before pic

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..and this is a current pic. As you can see it doesn't look much but we have had the boiler and heating put in, some floor joists replaced in the kitchen floor, lead piping removed from all plumbing fixtures in the house which all ran through to the kitchen, we've started stripping the windows, doors and woodwork of paint and begun to fill and repaint them white, had electrics put in including lighting, stripped the walls of the old woodchip and we have had to pull out the old shelves and cupboard to make way for the units and we have pulled out the old 50's fire and bricked up the fireplace ready for plastering and put in the plumbing for a washing machine. So although it comestically looks little different, it's a whole new room now!

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