Making a Start on the Gazebo

18 November 2010

Rain, rain and more rain – oh, and some wind, fog and frost. Sounds like a typical British winter then. It seems as though the rain has hardly paused for thought this week. Everyday has seen a little bit of rain or at the very least icy winds and I chose this week to make a start on the gazebo – bad idea.

Of course I have only been able to get out and do the work on the the weekend and a couple of sneaky afternoons, so I haven't made much headway. However according to Claire I have made quite a lot of mess. I have been digging out the footings for the base which, given the state of our soil, has meant slicing through thick clay which has the consistency of playdough and soaks up all the water.

It was back breaking work and I really felt it on Monday morning. I did manage to get the base nearly finished and another couple of days work should see the timbers moved into place. Of course I have opted for a self designed gazebo as my motto is: why pay for someone else to cut a few bits of wood?

Of course this has meant that it will take longer, I need more tools and there are waste pieces of wood to get rid of. Plus I had to spend a good few hours planning all the timber lengths and getting the maths right. The basic design is hexagonal with a solid roof to keep off the rain. The roof reaches a central peak and Claire wants some sort of design feature to sit on top. The sides will be open, but the right width to accommodate pull down canvas blinds. Seating will be around the edges and we will put one of these fancy gas heaters in the centre. It will cost a fortune....

It is not like I have nothing else to do. Katy and I are working on a big job which we hope to get done before Christmas. This time there is a little bit of structural work to do. We are changing a three bed house into four beds, without the use of an extension.

This is one of Chris' student lets and as he charges per room, he will make more money by having four small bedrooms rather than three large ones. Basically we are moving the walls around and making the bathroom smaller. We had to get the building regs guy in to check the walls we wanted to move and within reason we can set the space up as we want.

I really don't want to be moving bathroom plumbing around so we have opted to simply move the toilet and sink over slightly to make one bedroom bigger and then steal space from that room and the next one to make a smallish fourth bedroom. It will still be big enough for a double bed and will have its own window, so it is all good.

Although four bedrooms and just one small bathroom isn't ideal. I have pointed this out to Chris and he agrees, so after Christmas we will be putting a shower room in downstairs, just off the kitchen in what was a utility area. To me it is all compromise, but according to Chris it will improve the amount of money he makes from the property and that is the name of the game, I guess.

So busy times ahead. Hopefully the weather won't continue to go downhill. I can put up with the cold, but the rain really gets me down...