World of more

Next door have a lovely lawn.  Really lovely.  I didn’t think I was much of a lawn man, but it looks simply sumptuous.  Ours does not.  We have what’s nominally known as the tennis court - it’s the right size and when we moved in the net was erected.  There’s even a line marking machine in the shed.  But Wimbledon it is not.  It slopes and bumps, and thistles threaten an entire service box in the far corner. Turns out that next door’s secret is they have a gardener.  He turns up once a week and makes it lovely.  We spoke to him the week we moved in, and he’s a nice chap and went to school with Islay’s sister.  Anyway, we asked him to come and give us some advice and a quote for doing some hardcore pruning work to help us get the trees.  His patter is obviously quite good, because he persuaded Islay that he should come and work for a few hours each week up until Christmas to do all the pruning and lopping and everything over an extended period. S...

So the first phase of our building work is now complete.  And relatively painless it was too.  It included: comprehensively rebuilt dormers, complete with some insulation and nicely fitting lead work the top three courses of the chimney have been replaced, as have some rotting bricks, a pot has been placed on top and the lead work has been re done the decaying satellite dish and unused analogue aerial have been removed the roof above the corner of the lounge has been refilled numerous slipped tiles have been replaced new drainage has been dug new manhole covers have been set and the appalling piece of gutter routing that was cut through the render on the corner of the house to expose part of the timber frame to the elements has been redone and re-rendered. So the house is much more weather-tight than it was before. Now on to the next phase.  What we’re planning is to rip out all the walls in the old bit of the house to stuff insulation into the space.  At the same time we’ll...

Warning heavy plant. The cherry picker lurks outside the front door.