---
layout: ../../layouts/LayoutMdx.astro
title: "2024"
date: 2024-11-04
dir: year2024
image: garden-furniture
description: jobs jobs jobs
---

import { generateImageHyrdationFunction } from "../../utils";
export const s = generateImageHyrdationFunction("year2024");

import Cards from "../../components/Cards.astro";
import Callout from "../../components/Callout.astro";
import Solocard from "../../components/Solocard.astro";
import NextPrev from "../../components/NextPrev.astro";
import Progress from "../../components/Progress.astro";
import YTVideo from "../../components/YTVideo.astro";
import Quote from "../../components/Quote.astro";

It's been quite a while since we've done one of these! We've got to the point where each individual job isn't very big, so we haven't bothered documenting them.

Our major stories this time are outside projects, and they seem to take _aaaaages_.

However, we've accumulated quite a few other small jobs since the last update! Bim bim bam let's go

## The Back

The theme for this year's major works is _outside_.  We're running out of large-scale things to do inside, but there was plenty of scope outside for improvement.

Even since we arrive in Bath we struggled to enjoy our patio.  It was always a bit of an awkward shape and the floor was <sup>all</sup> over _the_ place.

<Solocard title="Still a huge improvement on what we had in Harrow..." src={s("patio-before")}/>

Well we decided that we couldn't possibly live with it anymore and got some people in to come and built us a new one.  As always, Ozzy was astonished at the speed at which demolition happens, and after a couple of days in early June we were left with a big mess in the back garden where we used to have a patio.

<Cards images={[
    {title: "A big mess", src: s('patio-mess')},
    {title: "Wondering if we've made the right decision", src: s('patio-thinking')},
]} />

Work tends to go fast when you're using the right tools, and given that 🎉🎉🎉 tools are our favourite things 🎉🎉🎉, we couldn't pass up giving you a quick overview.

<Solocard title="Power-Wheelbarrow and MiniDigger" src={s("patio-progress")}/>

The **Power-Wheelbarrow** has a weight capacity of half a ton, and can lift and tilt it's bucket into a skip.  Super useful when you're having to take all the spoil down the full length of our garden.  The tank-style tracks have an amazing capacity for churning up lawns though.

The **MiniDigger** is just pretty cute.  It can tuck in it's treads so that it can be driven straight through a house - we didn't feel the need for a demonstation.  They also didn't let us have a go as its quite a bit more tippy than a standard digger.

Between them they made very quick work on removing our old patio.

Despite having these excellent tools, they didn't manage to completely remove some of the slabs of original pennant stone - They dropped them halfway down the garden.  Fortunately in a very neat way that happened to expand our mid-garden patio. 😁

*Todo: Midgarden patio pic

Whilst the demolition was quick, it wasn't entirely smooth.  We'd decided to have the treads of the stairs match the patio, and when they came to remove the old treads, a fair part of the rest of the stairs came with them turning them into a bit of a slide.

<Cards images={[

    {title: "Not quite as neat as we'd hoped", src: s("stair-slide-2")},
    {title: "Wheee", src: s("stair-slide")},

]} />

We had a big ol' conversation about various options on how to proceed, but we didn't really like any of the options presented.  In the end, we decided to get our stonemasony friends back to come and fix things.  Of course this adds more time as we need to organise more people, but we thought that it would be worth it.

In the meantime, work continued on the main patio, and by the end of June it was done*  We chose a porcelain tile as these would be very hardwearing, but most of all, they would be flat (a feature we _really_ wanted)

<Solocard title="Done*  (Carefully framed photo)" src={s('patio-done')}/>

We were so pleased with finally having a _flat patio_ that we decided to cash in a wedding present from Ozzy's parents - a garden furniture voucher.  We couldn't see any expiry date, which is good considering it was over ten years late 😀

<Solocard title="The voucher gained interest" src={s("garden-furniture")} />

You can see the start of the work that the stonemasons were doing to the stairs here.  The were so unsure about what might need to be done that they refused to give us a quote and instead agreed a day-rate.  Watching them work was an education in stairbuilding technique.  

We found out that each stair is almost entirely supported by the large wall and the stair beneath - the smaller wall beneath the stairs was a much later addition.  This ruled out replacing any of the stairs because we _really_ didn't want to do anything with the shared garden wall, so instead we opted to extend each step along a bit - increasing the overlap between each step.

<Cards images={[
    {title: "You can see the diagonal line that would have been unsupported", src: s("stair-construction")},
    {title: "Adding a new face and backfilling", src: s("stair-rebuild")}
]} />

By the time the masons had finished it was already late July.  Now we just had to organise a time to get the original bloke back to place the stair treads.

And someone else to come and fix the railing.  During deconstruction of the stairs, we had to cut out a few of the supports for the railing.  This left it in such a wobbly state that if you did need to use it, not only would it not prevent your fall, it would probably fall on top of you afterwards.  Fortunateley, there's a really good ironworks company just down the road from us, so we got them to come and fix it up for us - it only took a few weeks, but that pushed us into September.

Lastly we just needed to get ourselves in the right frame of mind to tackle repainting the railing.  I feel that having to wait a few weeks to get someone in to do something is generally considered an encouraging sign of competance - well in that case Nikki and Ozzy must be bloody amazing at painting railings!

<Cards images={[

    {title: "Before", src: s("rail-before")},
    {title: "Using bit of old railing to keep the tarps down 😎", src: s("rail-during")},
    {title: "Looking pretty smart!", src: s("rail-after")}

]} />

Now we just need to wait until spring for the plants to start growing in and it'll be done!

DONE DONE DONE!  It only took 7 months - no wonder our updates are slowing down!

**TODO:** Pic of done-ness

## The Front

Whilst all this was going on, we were having some work done at the front as well.  Our front garden wall has been looking a bit fally-downy ever since we got here - another reminder of Harrow 🙂  Given what Bath is like, and the visibility of this change, we decided to take our first dip into the wonderful world of planning permission and listed building consent - Yay

Fortunately, it was far easier than we expected it to be.  We knew that numbers 4-7 of our house block had got their front walls repaired and re-railed a few years before we moved in.  What we didn't know was that their consent forms all included our house too!  And because our work was to be done within 5 years of the other walls, we didn't need to do a thing!  Nice!

Full steam ahead then!  We had our stonemasons come round and take the unoriginal bits off, stabilise the lower course, then add a few courses of Bath stone.

<Cards images={[

    {title: "All in all it's just a massive crack in the wall", src: s("borked-wall")},
    {title: "Wall down to base", src: s("front-wall")},
    {title: "Wall built", src: s("front-wall-done")}

]} />

Our local ironmongers came round to install a new set of railings and a gate to complete the look.

<Cards images={[

    {title: "Railings are attached with lead", src: s("wall-lead")},
    {title: "Front with railings", src: s("front-wall-donedone")}

]} />

Time for another done*

It all looks great, but the surface of the garden path is so uneven that it's not possible to close the front gate 🤦  We're chosing to think about how this shows how welcoming we are, rather than anything else.

## The Others

Time for the bim bim bam section!

## Lounge

We moved the mirror to the other side of the room, and painted the walls and bookshelves a bit. We also replaced the radiators as the old ones stopped working. We don't have a huge number of 'before' photos because we forgot.

<Solocard title="In progress" src={s("lounge.MP")} />

We got a footstool which has a bed in it - we had a bit of a mixup with the delivery where we received a completely different colour in a mislabeled box.

It's really cosy now.


## Master Bathroom

Nikki nearly installed a shelf.

## Hallway

Nikki actually installed a shelf. AND a mirror.

<Solocard title="Wow" src={s("hallway")} />


## Basement

The basement continues to be pretty uninspiring compared to the rest of the house. We are mainly using it for storage, though now we've moved the sofa bed down there it comes in very handy to sleep in when there's a heatwave!

Ozzy's second love in life is big plastic storage boxes, and we've reworked a lot of our shelves to accommodate these. They aren't the prettiest, but it's useful to have contained areas for storing stuff, and it's easier to see what's in them than in cardboard boxes.

Which means we can now return to the ..... 

<Progress value={67} max={67} />

WHAT'S THAT?? We've unpacked every box!! This means we've now officially moved in. Well done us.

Or rather, we've just transferred things from cardboard boxes into plastic boxes.


<Solocard title="Clutter library - but now you can see what we're storing" src={s("basement-storage")} />

We've also done a couple of jobs in the bathroom - replacing the old loud extractor fan with a quieter one, replacing the light with one that wasn't falling out of the ceiling, and repainting and covering the louvre doors with burlap to help a little with privacy.

##  Utility

We still haven't fully installed the worktop, but we did install the tap. This removes the motivation to finish the worktop as we can now fully use the sink.

You may remember, back in ancient history when we were installing the cupboards, we mentioned that we were able to use every available centimetre on that wall. 
Whilst it is great for maximising storage, it also makes it difficult to get the washing machine and tumble dryer out to access the tap behind, especially when it's on a wonky tiling job.
We bought a set of wheels to put the machines on, to wheel them in and out. 








## lounge
- New paint on walls and inside bookshelves
- moved big mirror to other side of room
- new sofa and footstool with bed in it
- curtains
- pictures on walls
- new radiator install (bedroom too)
## basement
- replaced a light
- replaced the extractor fan for one much much quieter
- painted louvred doors and put fabric on bathroom doors to block out visibility
- curtains
- considered replacing the shower, but 'fixed' it instead
## dining room
- nozzy wall hanging with interesting plasterboard fixings
## hallway
- dimmer switches (one needed big repairs)
- shelf

## utility
* Installed the tap
* washing machine wheels

## bedroom
- new curtain rail because the old one fell apart
- new radiators


## other things
- Nikki ran the bath half in ~2 1/2 hours and raised £820 and got a massive ice cream after
- Ozzy has bought enough IKEA boxes to live in







<NextPrev prev="year2023-1" />
