The Garden Tidy Up Continues (Much nicer than doing accounts, especially when it's a lovely sunny day!!)

The decision  today was should I finish painting ,do the accounts or tidy up the garden.......well as it was a lovely sunny day the decision was made easily....tidy up garden. There was still lots of roof batons to chop up and stack in my newly made wood store that I'd made out of palletts ( I do believe in re cycling and get satisfaction when I can find a new use for something) It felt so good to finally see my path again and feel that a good start has been made to getting order back into the garden.
Once that was completed it was a case of raking out all the dead bits of plants digging up some plants that had become overgrow & doing some pruning..
 A couple of days ago I cut the lawns for the first time this year and discovered that they are rather dented where the workmen have walked so I'll have to remedy that somehow.

Not much left to do now

Path almost cleared

My new wood store

Hooray....I can now use my path

Getting Plastered Before The Guests' Arrival!!

I managed to find somebody who could do plastering and whatsmore could actually come immediately!!!! (A very rare breed!) As promised, he turned up promptly on Tuesday morning to take a look at what needed doing, went off got the materials and got started. As it turned out the areas under the Breakfast Room windows weren't as bad as in the sitting room!!

some of the horrendous red and yellow rag rolled decor revealed

Under the front room windowthe plaster was removed to the brick work

Plastering started Tuesday....guests coming Friday!!

Batons going up in the kitchen

 While he was here I decided to ask if he could do some tongue and groove panneling in the kitchen, something I've been wanting for a while The joiner who I'd been waiting for since before Christmas to come and finish off some jobs and give me a quote for doing the panneling, announced when he finally came on Monday that he didn't want the job anymore!!! If only he could have told me that back in December. I was to say the least annoyed. Anyway Ian has also made a start on that job too but was thwarted on Thursday when the wood wasn't delivered. I was at a workshop on Thursday so on Friday it was all go to get the wallpapering done before the guests' arrival.

Get One Job Done And It Leads To More ...

The last skip and stored scaffolding was picked up last week and suddenly  the garden was mine again but it looked so untidy with all the heaps of batons and pallets. It was a question of what to do first.
 I also had to consider what to do in the Breakfast Room!. The radiator in there had been painted red and yellow and although I had re painted it white the red kept showing through. A neighbour who is a plumber was able to measure up order and replace it in two days!!! Unheard of but as the new radiator is half the length it has meant that I have had to decorate which then lead me to discover that I had a damp area in the corner of the room so I need some re plastering and some new new skirting board! Help!! all these follow on jobs. As I have guests coming this weekend I really do need to get things sorted.

This was the colour of the radiator as well as the walls!

Some re decorating was needed around the radiator

As I started to remove wll paper under the windows I found that even more re plastering was needed...will it ever end

I Have My House And Garden Back

scaffolding starting to come down

 Oh the joys of having my house back. The scaffolding was taken down last Thursday. I was really caught out as I thought it was being taken down the next day!! I was just in the middle of serving breakfast to my two lots of guests when the scaffolder turned up at the front door much to my horror, wanting the car  (a guest's ) to be removed from the driveway. I persuaded them to park their lorry at the back as I was busy at that moment (They couldn't have picked a worse time!). Fortunately the guests all took the disturbance well and even found it entertaining." Fawlty Towers" was mentioned!! . I did suggest I could charge extra for having on site male entertainmers which got a chuckle.

Coming down off the front of the house

The last parts going on to the lorry

Aaaahhhhhh a view without scaffolding

Lymehurst is back

The other problem with them turning up a day early was that I had been up on the top scaffolding to touch up some paint work but it had become quite windy and I didn't like the feeling of the scaffolding moving so I gave up but still had more to do.

 

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The scaffloders couldn't transport all the scaffolding so it was neatly stacked in the parking area  next to the skip in the back garden. The house suddenly became so much lighter inside but outside needed such a good tidy up.
 Each day I'm trying to do a bit more and it is almost back to normal especially as the skip and scaffolding went on Monday. However I have two piles of batons to chop up as well as pallets but I might use some to build  an extra wood store

Chopping up drift wood from the storms

One of the mountains of batons to chop

The pallets..... firewood and a new wood store perhaps

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Wasted Effort!!!

Well my windows didn't stay clean for long! The very next day the wind picked up again and we had some really severe gusts so the windows are nicely covered in a layre of dust and sand again. Oh the joys.

Newly Weds Come To Stay

Last week I had a couple to stay who had got married the weekend before and had wanted to get away for a couple of days. They had stayed here on another occaision and decided that Lymehurst was the place to come! The loft room where they stayed is a really cosy room especially as it has a seating area with  big comfy armchairs to relax in. So almost  my first Honeymooners

Celebration drinks

The loft room at Lymehurst B & B

How Nice To Have Clean windows

Room almost ready, This is part of the loft conversion room

The view through to the mountains

Dressed for occaisionnin full waterproof gear!

Although the roofers finished yesterday I couldn't wash the windows as the pebble dashing  was still setting. So that was todays task before my guests arrived for their two night stay. It was quite a struggle getting the buckets of water up on to the two levels of scaffolding but grit and determination got me there in the end!! Now at least the windows are clean, not sure what will happen when the scaffolding gets removed but it is so nice to have a clear view out. Even the plants outside the front door had a good washing in anticipation of the guests arrival.

Better view of the snow capped tops

...And in the other direction The Great Orme

 The higher up buildings are on the road up to Haulfre Gardens

 The Orme descending to West Shore

 A more zoomed in photo

  Being up on the scaffolding I've been able to have a closer look at the paint work that was only completed last march and it doesn't look too good in places. My dilema is should I try to touch up the worst areas before the scaffolding goes. As it has rained so much the wood is obviously not very dry so I'm not sure how well the paint would take. Anybody able to advise me?

This interesting why has the above text gone into  blue!!??