We’re on the home straight. The house looks absolutely fabulous and now that all the major building works are over we have decided to finish one thing at a time, so this month have concentrated on getting the front garden finished for a number of reasons:
1) the weather has been great
2) there was a fantastic sale at our local garden centre in Cruise Hill where we bought conifers for as little as £16, small topiary balls which would normally be around £20 were on sale for £6
3) we really wanted to create some off street parking
To start off with, we laid the geotextile fabric down to stop the weeds from growing up through the gravel drive. We then recycled some of the rubble and building materials and use them in the driveway. For example the sand, left over from the renderers, 2 tons of it to be precise, was raked out to flatten the drive. We then used Joosten GS Panels www.joostenkunststoffen.nl which look like plastic egg boxes, to go on top of the sand. These soak away panels are an important part of the points system for Code 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. It requires that the ‘grey’ or waste water produced by the house must not place an additional strain on the local services; it has to operate independently; be self sufficient. These Joosten panels help the rainwater to drain away, solidify the gravel and stabilize the ground. I think they’re great. They were recommended to us by the engineer at the planning stage and cost about £10 per square metre but its worth it because it saves the gravel, keeps the drive looking nice and so in the long term it will probably be a cost saving as the gravel will stay looking nice for much longer. After all that, we laid 3.5 tons of 2mm gravel on top them all. We collected the gravel when we needed it which was a cheaper way to buy as it cost us £30 per ton as opposed to £40 had it been delivered in one go. We had sleepers which we bought 4 years ago for just £1. I knew they would come in handy and they have! We’ve used them to define all the raised beds front and back and planted everything we had bought up in various garden centre sales. We also used all the bricks from the pub renovation to make up the flower beds.
The finishing touches have been made with gorgeous Georgian style gates which we bought on ebay for £60. Barry drove all the way to Stoke on Trent to pick them up. It was a 7 hour round trip but worth every minute. They look fabulous and really finish off the front of the house. We have also been busy buying and selling things at auction including a table and chairs for the kitchen. I like the idea of things being reused. We throw away too much and recycled materials also add character to a home.
The grand finale for this month was when we said goodbye to our caravan. It was sold on ebay for £175. We bought it for £270 4 months ago, which means it has only cost us £95 to live for four months… Not bad for a London rental!
