You’re all probably sick of hearing about taking down our garden wall and, we’re definitely sick of cleaning hundreds of bricks. You can catch up on what we’ve done so far here.
It feels like we’ve been at it for months on end – oh wait, we have! Well, I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear that it’s finally done! Don’t start getting to excited though, you’re not going to be seeing any pretty pictures of a nice new wall yet.
This is what our garden now looks like – or should I say the space where wall should be…
… because it’s finally gone! I was starting to doubt we’d ever finish taking it down. As you can tell, we didn’t stop with just the wall, as we’ve also started to remove some of the tarmac that covers most of the garden.
Now, normal people would have probably hired some kind of breaker, but we decided that it was money that we could easily save by putting just a bit a lot of muscle power. Luckily the tarmac was in a really bad condition and was fairly easy to break up, but it did take some serious work to do.
The ugly and rusty driveway gate and concrete gate post obviously had to go, too. The concrete foundation of the gate post was really, really heavy! Jan and one of our amazing neighbours could just about lift it out of the hole.
For now we’ve loosely laid a row of bricks into the trench that we’ve dug for the foundation of the new wall. After all we don’t want people walking past to fall into the big hole along the side of our property boundary.
As Jan broke up the tarmac, I’m the lucky one who’s allowed to shovel everything into the skip. Yep, it’s all fun and games around here!
That’s what we we’re up to this weekend! What we’re you up to? Hopefully you were having a bit more fun than us!
Magali@TheLittleWhiteHouse says
I really enjoy following your progress. I’m only fed up of blogs where the whole house gets remodeled in a month “on a budget”!!! I spent my weekend painting the kitchen on my own, so picture me trying to keep my balance over the washing machine or the sink to rich the top of the wall (why did I remove the fake ceiling… it wasn’t that high before!) and that was my weekend!
Christine says
Thanks Magali! You’re right – in Blogland everything seems to move at a ridiculously fast pace. Sometimes I wish things would move on quicker here, but we do have a real budget and our house is a real project that doesn’t just need quick coat of paint.
Would loved to have seen your acrobatic painting efforts, but either way removing your ceiling was so worth it!
Cx
caitlin says
I continue to be impressed by the stuff you guys take on. One day it’s like a three ton Ibeam, the next it’s acres of tarmac and bricks! I think you can give up the gym membership…
What did you do with all the material that you dug up? -Caitlin
Christine says
Awww, thanks! That means a lot from a fellow DIYer. All of the stuff we’ve dug up is in the middle of the garden… the skip arrives tomorrow, the foundation work for the wall is meant to start on Wednesday or Thursday and I still have a load of bricks to clean by Thursday and IT’s RAINING. We may take on a lot, but things don’t always go quite to plan. ;)
Cx
MarieRoxanne says
Rain is good isn’t it? Easier to clean the bricks?
I am not tired of following this story because I am looking forward to a happy and pretty ending.
Christine says
Well, I’m looking forward to the pretty ending, but I’m certainly tired of cleaning bricks!
Cx