Decking Refurbished

As you can see, Andy's deck is a wee bit the worse for wear. Walking on it is high risk as it's covered in slippery slimy moss. It also has'nt been coated in years it aint pretty, it aint pretty at all so he's asked me to give it a makeover.

 

 

I give it the once over with scraper and wire brush, then a severe pressure washing with strong detergent followed by a rinse. I leave it to dry and air for a couple of days then go back and give it two generous coats of Ronseal Ducksback.

 

 

And the job, as they say here in the county of Angus, is a guid ane...

 

Patio.

This was one of a number of jobs we did for a smashing couple called Audrey and Tim.
Stu removed about eight inches of topsoil, and replaced it with screed, a mix of six parts damp sand and one part cement with no added water. He then levels it and lays the slabs, finishing off with a shoulder of cement. The damp screed draws moisture from the earth underneath and is rock solid in a few days. Nice job Stu.

 

 

Meanwhile, I'm felling a few trees.

 
 This big old conifer had been pruned and topped so much in its life that it just started sprouting branches everywhere it could. I climb up and cut off as many facing branches as I can to minimise damage to the lawn. The westerly near gale assists the fall and it touches down exactly where I want it to.

 Sliced and diced.

And every twig put to good use. The smaller branches and foliage went to the composting site at Riverside, and the rest went to my big sis for winter fuel.

 

 

 

Another job to be done here is the ridge tiles. Every year Audrey and Tim have problems with ridge tiles being blown off and have to get them cemented into place again. They have a tendancy to slide down the roof and break the guttering so this just adds to the expense.

Gordon jnr is a tradesman roofer and has suggested a ridge system where the tiles are actually screwed into the roof trusses.

 

As you can see, fresh cement from a recent repair

 

Nice job Gordon!


 
 

 

 

Next job was to fit some new PVC guttering to the front of the house. This was to replace the old cast iron ones as they had leaks, and seals etc are no longer available so they had to go. With a bit of advice from Gordon jnr I did this one myself. I also freshened up the paintwork to all of the sills.

 

Jobs a guid ane!!

 

 

 Lastly, the bargeboards and soffits to the dormers were a bit worse for wear so we replaced them with some nice pure dead brilliant white PVC.

I'll add some pics later..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving a ten foot by eight foot greenhouse from Newtyle to Broughty Ferry.

Alison called me asking if I could shift a rather large greenhouse for her, and I was happy to oblige. We met up yesterday (Sunday) morning at the site. We removed all of the glass, and then, using my hammer drill static with a wide chisel bit broke out the concrete anchoring it to the ground. It was a possible lift for two, easy for four. I cut a couple of lengths of four by two and laid them in place on the trailer and we just lifted it straight on, secured with four ratchet straps and four screws. I drove to the Ferry with no problems other than a few stares. When we arrived it was just a simple matter of carrying it 150 metres between four of us over several hedges, gates and fences and it was laid in place.

Not a single sheet of glass was damaged in this operation, and the job, as they say, is a guid ane...

 

My daughter Laurie just got engaged to a lovely man called Callum.

Garden tidy extraordinaire.

Heather and Chris are a lovely young couple with four young children. They

just don't have the time to look after their back garden. Chris is a bus driver who works long hours and Heather has her hands full with the four wee ones.

As you can see it's fell by the wayside and they've asked me to give it a makeover on a very tight budget.

This area has bark chips but it's turned to soup so has to go.

This is a pet project for me because the transformation is going to be spectacular.

I just scooped everything up, the shed, the wendy house, the old kitchen, the rubbish and the rubble.

Watch this space folks, more pics to come.

Update**

Heather wanted a raised bed to grow some veg so we settled on this type. It's a metre wide and five metres long. Five pressure treated posts set in with Postcrete and three course of decking boards, also pressure treated so should be good for many years to come.

I have to dig out these two sections of earth. The smaller one will be getting 8 slabs, the bigger one bark chips because the trampoline is going to be there, and kids bounce better on bark chips. I have to dig out about 5-6" of soil so ideal for filling up the raised bed.

The slabs are all in place, borders dug out, trampoline area dug out. All I have to do is lay some weed control and a bed of bark chips, and a few hours painting. The jobs a guid ane!!

The earth from the borders etc all went into the raised bed but Chris and Heather are going to do that job themselves.

Playbark in place, just some painting and a gate to make and its finished.

Well chuffed with this job ;-)

 

 

I pressure washed and scraped the buff coloured panels, bargeboard and soffit, and gave them a couple of coats of white gloss.

And even though I say it myself, it does look rather nice.

A new rear gate, and the jobs a guid ane.... 

Pizza!!

First off, I put a full bag of strong white flour in a mixing bowl with a dessert spoonfull of salt, 50g fresh yeast, or two sachets of dried, and 850-900ml of warm water. Give it a good mix through with a spatula and it should look something like this;

 

 

 With fresh yeast it will start fermenting within thirty minutes. Dried takes a fair bit longer. Once it rises to double the size knock it down so it looks like this.

 

The sauce is 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, 3 cloves of garlic, a good glug of extra virgin olive oil, dried oregano, fresh torn basil, salt, pepper and sugar, to your taste. Simmer it for about 15 minutes to reduce, and allow to cool. *tip* If its for kids you can push it through a sieve so no big chunks of tomato. Never, ever liquidise tomatoes, the seeds are bitter and likely to ruin a good sauce...

 

 

 

I use a 10' frying pan with the handle removed, over a medium heat, and shallow fry the base in a little olive oil until its puffed up on top and crisp on the bottom. I then put it under a very hot grill for a couple of minutes just to colour it, then add the toppings. I wish I could show a pic of this one as it came out of the grill but it was surrounded by gannets within seconds.

 

This one has pepperoni, potato, green chilli, onion and Parmejano Regiano. I'd love to be able to tell you how delicious it was but I took a pic, turned my back to find the peppermill, and it had disappeared like a fart on the wind....

 

 

I like to serve pizza with a mixed salad and fries, and friends and beer and wine....

 

 

In Italy, pizza is peasant food, meats and cheeses are a luxury added by the Americans and ourselves. It originated as a flatbread with tomato, olive oil, garlic, herbs and vegetables and, the flatbread was originally deep fried.