If you have been reading my recent parental leave posts, you will know that I have spent a lot of time painting the veranda. I’m glad to say that the frame is finished. Jen is sorting out the detail parts, although I think it looks good as it is. The concrete bases for the veranda also need a lick of paint, but I plan to do that when they are removed from the old patio, but before they are put back on the new patio. I spent a very hot afternoon in the sun with wire brushes and scrapers getting as much of the old paint off as possible, it was hard work, but given how flakey the current paint is, I was the new paint to have the best chance of sticking as possible.

Things will be moving at a much faster pace now, as the guys are starting on the landscaping tomorrow morning. They had allocated 5 days, but forgot that next Monday is a bank holiday, so are starting this week. Hopefully it will all be finished in time for Owen’s birthday party on the third of June!

The framework for the new veranda is up! Now we have three weeks to paint it, before the polycarbonate roof panels are fitted.

The job went mostly to plan, the only issue being that during the removal of the old veranda a piece of wood fell into the drain collector. This wasn’t a problem until I emptied Owen’s bath, which overwhelmed the drain, causing it to back up and overflow out of the boiler drain pipe. The first I heard about it was when the builder shouted up to say that there was a problem with the boiler. I came outside to a flood of water pouring out of the boiler cupboard, I was glad to realise it was the bath water, rather than an expensive sounding boiler issue. We were able to unblock the drain and it gave Jen and I the kick we needed to clear out the boiler cupboard which had become a bit of a dumping ground.

Landscaping the garden was meant to be part of the garage build way back in 2014, but when we realised the scale of both jobs, we decided to hold back on the landscaping. After almost a year without much work on the house (I can’t think why) we are ready kick things off.

Those who have visited our garden will notice that things have already started – all the clutter has gone from under the veranda, this is because renovating the veranda is the first part of the job. The veranda is an important part of the house, Jen’s family have been having tea and cake on a Sunday afternoon under there for decades! So we will be keeping all of the period features, and making sure we can keep using the veranda for decades to come.

Later parts of the project include sandstone paving the path and patio and adding another patio up by the garage, which will be in the sun when the veranda is in the shade (and vice versa). Like all good DIY projects we have a deadline – Owen’s first birthday party at the start of June!