The Big Clean Up...

Yaahhhy...
Ground zero on the big paddock area has been reached!

Some of the gladiola and roses from the gardens,,,

This is the exciting bit...Shifted all the sand from different scattered locations in the yard to the new work area...inside the area for the new room to be! All of this will be used for rendering the end wall of the 3 door shed and to lay the bricks for the summer kitchen later this month. All the wood is in one big pile now...Will use some for the wooden deck here on the front patio and other to make a new back fence, some to build the pavilion on the big deck and more to rebuild the lean to off the right side of the summer kitchen...probably as a green house area?

Grow grass, grow!  2 piles of gravel are now one... and 3 piles of sand are now one! That leaves 3 big baldy patches on the ground...A few days of good rain will fix that and the grass should begin to grow to cover it soon.

We only have to finish moving all the roof tiles from the front wall of the summer kitchen to the new pile on the plastic and that completes the entire paddock clean-up!

The deck is clean again and ready to receive a top dressing from more mud bricks to level it all out. Then we'll build the fire pit properly... and other things...Probably a 4 post pavilion with curtains around it and a BBQ in the far corner. We have to run a course of concrete bricks along the back about a metre high to hold the deck in place. Then put some seating on the deck...

Gradually filling all yard rubble into lower areas now and in a few weeks it all should be one height! Then the fun begins...We have plenty of old timbers to build 20 pavilions I reckon!

You can see the string lines where we have to fill the deck to...rubble and old broken tiles etc etc, covered with crushed mud bricks...a lot of work, but at least we keep and reuse the materials again for modern uses.

This right side terraced garden will look like the pic above as soon as they complete work on the summer kitchen in August...This end of the summer kitchen you can see here comes down first, after they take the roof off, ceilings out and knock down the middle wall in it.

One clean and tidy yard...Ahhh, the serenity!

The front door is good and will be used in the 3 door shed. Tiles all go to the new pile next week...getting excited now. Found half of these tiles in the paddock under the grass and the rest came from the collapsed shed. We should have enough for half the new room roof, so that will help a lot. All the tiles on the summer kitchen are in good, but mossy condition. They clean them up with a wire brush....and they are red! The same colour as the ones on the ground! I thought they were grey...but it's the moss on them.

This little lean to will be replaced when the walls are all redone. It probably would serve well as a green house there...

Karen in UK gave me the idea when I saw her awesome yard and all her garden laid out so well.

I ask you...Do you think Vision boxes work? That means you put an image of something you want in a box and imagine it every day and work towards achieving it?

I carried this little squishy foam house around with me for years and found it recently. I got quite a shock when I took these pics just now. Almost exactly the same...Even to the size, roof pitch and gable ends.  My chimney is in the middle at the back, and a little worse for wear, this little one is on the right end, but a chimney is a chimney! Powerful isn't it? Feeling very blessed and extremely grateful indeed. Amen and  Thank-You..

This is a traditional Hungarian fire pit with cooking kettle in action...

This was more my idea...

This is really nice and is similar to the house deck we are just about to tackle outside the room I'm in now, where the old upside down wine vat-cum-coffee table will be...instead of the fire pit here.

This is similar to my son Paul's spa in OZ. My future spa will be here at the house as pipes freeze etc and it's too far to have a spa over on the big deck, so it will be here. The pavilion is what I'm building though. very simple. 4 wooden poles up against the flimsy poles that come with a normal pavilion and add the drapes and  roof flaps like here...and presto! One sexy looking outdoor room for the big deck.,

Like this too and am wondering how to incorporate it into the design of the big deck. Ahhh, well, let's get the buildings out of the way first, then crush up all the old mud bricks, level the big deck and see how to go from there. There's plenty of room...but wanted those white balustrades around the top level edges of the deck and this one is not the type for that...

But... it could be used as a lead up to the big deck, couldn't it?  Change the fire pit to a fountain...hmmmnnn...

That would work...OK...am getting desperate now...Need a full time gardener...any takers???  Free accom, food, power, water etc in return for 5 days work a week...all tools provided. Plus some pay if you work more than 6 hrs a day! C'mon some of you, you'd love it for 3 months at least. What a way to have a cheap holiday in Europe. Go places on your 2 days off, come back to your little private quarters, do some gardening and head off again after 5 days!

It has been suggested that I could open the gardens to the public for Devonshire teas too, when they are completed enough next year, as there are no such places in the entire tourist area.

I'd like to provide the teas outside under the trees, which I only have a few of at the moment, but will be planting a lot of gardens now the paddocks are all mowable and clean.

I'm re-arranging the bathrooms to provide an extra ensuite inside now...back to back in the same area as just one was going, so it's not much extra work or cost actually. An extra wall, door, loo, basin etc...no more than about $800 with labour, so it's worth doing for sure.

It has easy access for the public to the new dining room too, if it rains...and if it goes well, I can simply build a whole toilet complex outside later on if nec. No probs!

OK...that's it now for this blog. See you next week with hopefully, one internal wall knocked out in the 3 door shed, the west end wall rendered and floors in the 3 door shed and then the roof coming off the summer kitchen.

Exciting times ahead for sure.

Cheers,
M
xxxx