Doing...Doing...Done!

Yasahhhy...
The back fence finally has concrete under it to anchor it from dogs and chooks getting under it and into neighbour's yards and vice versa. Only have to put up the grass/reeds privacy screens now, but that can wait until August/September yet..

Three roof gutter drains are all in, connected, run to the well and the lumen is patent (nursing term for...the water goes thru OK) The 4th gutter drain has a big drain to the end of the side yard with a dry rubble pit yet to dig, so that is being done on the weekend.

Bedroom one window is in, cement cleaned off it and have painted the surrounds. Have to paint the timber windows themselves when all the rest of the timbers get painted...after all the cutting out of windows happens.

Am thinking of adding yet another window to the current lounge room too...which may become a 4 bed dorm/family bed room...not sure yet. It would work a whole lot better than a lounge and dining room for sure, as it's the wrong shape for how I'd really like to decorate it!

The big deck...stage one is completed with its garden areas, with the rocks around it. It's gone as far as it can be at the moment due to the Summer Kitchen being worked on in late May.
Am going for a dentist visit for a crown on my tooth and a break in Belgrade about mid May, will see  Jelana, other friends and looking for hand made lace tablecloths and other lovely linen. Then the Summer kitchen work begins. Excited about that one for sure.

The little shed is finally being rendered roughly inside also on the weekend or there abouts and I'll put all the wood in there and finally be able to get the layout and stage 2 of the big deck started by Monday/Tuesday.

Concrete mower strip area has been dug and prepped for around the oval garden.

Pumpkin, rock-melon and watermelon patch down on the second block, is finally being cleaned up, rocks and rubble removed and old mud bricks flattened so it can be mowed between mounds now while the plants are growing. We had all the mud bricks and rubble spread there last year to fill up some lower areas and it was full of concrete rubble, bits of wood and thousands of bits of broken tiles. Every time we mow now, we gather another barrow load of rubble and take it to the big deck area to be covered over.

The front garden path is yet to be completed...waiting to find 6 matching concrete slabs...if we can't find them, Zoltan will just have to make individual slabs to lay to match the finished look. Am making a rather dramatic entrance there and will semi enclose it with 2 foot high pillars those urn pot plants on them

3 new little gates are being made on Wednesday to replace the sagging house garden gates at present, with a new one for the water metre area..

House garden fence moved to include the end of the well area

Inside the House yard, the path and garden edging in the extended yard is being completed to match existing set up. Another little job for me on the weekend too.

12 inch Concrete surround around the well, to prevent it caving in is being formed up now and the rest of this small area will probably be garden...flowers and tomatoes.

Concrete strip along sunny front of house...for water drainage down to garden areas is also being formed up, so when the mixer is going, there will be concrete pours all around the place! Most houses have a 12 inch concrete strip around the entire house here.

New fence posts being put in and 3 new gates hung and swung OK...even with proper locks!

Fence inside front gate to be cut out and 3rd gate put in for the water metre man to access rather than going into the house garden area, traipsing along the patio, past the spa area etc.

Lower part of the house at rear is having  its cement render completed finally!

Also a concrete mower strip is being formed around the big deck, then I'll place the rubble rocks nicely in place.

It will be so good to have all these finishing off jobs all done and the place outside sort of tidy...for the 4th time since I've been here.
Tidiness comes in stages as work gets done.
The first tidy was to get the 6 foot high grass slashed so I could be seen in the paddock!
The next tidy up was when the house and attic were cleaned out and everything dumped into the nice cleaned up grassy yard.
The next one was when we dozed the collapsed middle shed down to the bottom paddock...

and now this one...which is going to last only a month or so...
...until the guys pull down the 3 door shed...sighhhh, then it starts all over again.

But I'm getting them trained now to cart the stuff away as they make the mess and not leave piles of junk everywhere.
It must be a Hungarian tradition to leave tools dirty and piles of left overs and rubbish from their work, all over the place....sort of like Italian ladies giving birth...the louder they scream, the more cudos they receive!

It's my 2nd year anniversary here tomorrow, 15th April, so I should have thought to grab a bottle of bubbly...
Oh well, will do that later on I guess.

Red tulips over the road at the neighbour's place. Beautiful.

Drains going in...This part of the fence will be cut out and a post and new gate put in so the water metre man can have acess to the metre under that square concrete slab on the top right. It is a metal box, 2 metres deep with the metre at the bottom...so the water does not freeze!

Off to the well it all goes...Gosh...all that dirt over my nice new path...

Now it's out with the little bricks and in with a tap waste that connects to the waste water pipes...

OK...we have a connection!

...and after a hard day in the brown dirt...I get to sleep in my white bed! Hahaha...

Next day after the drains were dug, laid, the guys started the concrete under the back fence.

Forming it all up for the pour. The wire netting is embedded into the concrete a few inches...

So while the guys did the fence concrete at the back of the house, I shoveled the dirt back into the trenches at the front...The patch at the gate is going to have some 2 ft high columns, but we have to get the new gate and post in first, then I'll just pave it with old bricks for the time being. Then later on when my Peter comes over, we'll move the big front gates across a foot and fix the front fence concrete as it's broken. The gate is too hard to get in when one has a back pack on, so it must be moved away from the fence a foot or so..

You can see the need for a new gate here! The old looking, newish path will be extended to the drainpipe here where the board is, the well will have a foot wide concrete edging put around it, then I'll edge it all with brick ends to match the rest. The fence will be extended around the well and the new gate will be right here where the long board is. 3 new posts must go in now for the gate and extended fence...Sighhh, one thing fixed leads to 4 more things to fix!

Looking over, we see our storks have arrived back again...They were the last in the village to get here.

My neighbour's motorised billy cart!

Beautiful blossoms next door...

Under the tree...peek-a-boo!

Blossoms everywhere...

Strange sunsets this week...

The little shed almost completed and ready for a coat of paint! My poor old deck got all messed up as I had to empty out all the wood I'd piled up inside the shed...forgetting the guys would need to work from the inside of the shed to put the roof on.     You can see how quickly the bushes grew...2 weeks ago those bushes were bare! The grass is growing so fast too...it needs mowing every 3 days at the moment. Crazy...

Getting ready to sort out the rocks into their final places here so Zoltan can cement the mower strips around for this area too.

My apple tree down the end of the 2nd block...

Beautiful apple blossom...

Dog caught a few moles this week...I have never seen one before...I thought they'd be heaps bigger from the blessed mess they make when they dig those mounds of dirt everywhere...

She was so funny...rolling around, tossing the mole around, up in the air, catching it again, having so much fun! It's hanging out her mouth here...

Will try and get better pics next time...

Check out the claws!

Outside my gate...

Aren't they beautiful?

Lovely...

I must get some of these.They are beautiful and last a while too...

Perfect...

.

This angle suits them better...

They are really, really a lovely red, but they all came out orangey...Amazing.

Next on the agenda, the 3 door shed. I moved all those bricks the other day to tidy up the place a bit. Istvan built me a new clothes line with 4 posts. You can see it right where the new big room is going, between the end of the house and the 3 door shed. It will join onto and be connected to both buildings when completed in September. Will be so glad to finally get rid of all those piles of bricks, roofing tiles under the lino (are from the shed that collapsed that was between the 2 buildings), sand and gravel! It will look so much better at the end of May with that 3 door shed rebuilt. The summer kitchen doesn't look too bad from a distance, especially now with all the bushes growing around to hide the broken end!

Have been sanding back one of the antique dressers as it doesn't look like the restoration guy is coming now as he's gone to work in Germany...so that's another lot of work I didn't factor in that I'd have to do...but if I do one a week, they'll eventually get done.

Also started working on making the stools for the patio deck here to-day as I was cleaning up the yard and found the old fuel drums. I had a brainwave as I was sawing away on one of the drums with the hacksaw, having no idea how to do what I was wanting to do...but a funny thing happened on the way...

Will take a pic for you for next week...

OK...am off now, have a bunch of trees and shrubs to transplant/plant out, so will head off.
Catch you next week with heaps more little jobs done hopefully...
Bye...
M
xxx