70. the one with the patio

i wasn’t going to write about this yet. i wanted to wait until i could go:

“here is the before picture” (arrow to show vague patio-ular area)

and “TA-DAAA! here is the after picture”
< which would’ve gone here >
but alas, the only things that’re Completely Finished, are my lower back and shoulders.

so since i’m having an enforced rest day today, i will show a bunch of half arsed, half finished things instead.

back in 2007, before we’d even moved in here, we spent every weekend attempting to clear the extreme-overgrown garden.
the little patio area at the end of the kitchen (which, back then, was just a coal shed) ended up looking a bit like this.

good job, guys!

and then apart from mixing plaster there, mowing the crack weeds, dumping crap, tripping on uneven paving slabs and very, very occasional sitting, we ignored it.
until friday.

friday:

look, here’s our old friend from last weekend, the lol-wall

on saturday, we treated ourselves to a skip.
the only access to our garden is through the house, so to clear all of that concrete, we had to smash it up and carry it through the lounge *sad face* one heavy load at a time.

i say “we”, but i mean Husband, obviously. i tinkered around the edges, digging up root systems and destroying ant nests and updating my facebook, while he did all of the hefty smashing and all of the heavy lifting.

sunday was more my thing. after we’d levelled (well, kinda.. ) the ground and put down 364878647367 layers of weed suppressant, i got to start on the good stuff. laying edging pavers is actually a job i really enjoy (it’s probably an ocd thing).

why yes, i am wearing pyjama pants and a bra. it’s the comfiest outfit for crawling around on your knees whilst working in hot weather.
(of course, the proper grown up, perfumey lady from next door picked that moment to pop round and see how we were getting on, which was only mildly humiliating)

by sunday evening we’d got a fair bit done. it’s probably a good thing that we ran out of supplies or we would’ve just kept working…

i really meant to take a day off yesterday, but it seemed a shame to waste good weather… so i accidently sanded the slime off the fence and gave that a couple of coats of paint (i got bored after 2 panels though). and then i accidently started painting the chairs (i got a dehydration migraine after half of one though).

and today i’m too hurty to move, so TA-DAAAA! i present just half of all of the things!

i really do need to get on and finish it though – it appears that my edging pavers have already passed their use-by date :/