Good evening everyone!
I’ve just started another 4 weeks off of work (Heeeeyoooo! Props to the part time massive!) but rather than have any time to sit down and write thoughtful, useful, and google SERP 1 topping articles for you I’ve decided to completely rip my garden apart and put it back together again.
The reasons for this are many:
- We currently have decking which is rotten and falling apart.
- The garden is split into many small areas on different levels which we decided we don’t really like because…
- It’s not great with a small child. You definitely can’t kick a ball around in there or run around at the moment, which seems a bit sh!t if you ask me.
- Also this multi-area/multi-level set up makes a medium size garden 2 feel really quite small.
- I felt like taking on yet another ridiculous DIY project with little chance of completing it on schedule and within budget 🙂
Anyway, this is a long winded way of saying I’m going to just post up some pics of my progress at the end of each day instead of providing any real financially related posts. He he.
Self indulgent? You betcha!
But hopefully some of you might find it interesting, and I’ll keep a running record of what we’ve spent so there is at least a vague relation to something financial on here too.
Here is the rough plan of what I’m going to do:
- Rip up all the decking and take it to the dump.
- Dig out an area for the patio and use excess mud to…
- Level out out all the areas so it’s all on 1 level now (as much as is possible anyway).
- Move the raised flower beds to the right of the decking to the end of the garden so it doesn’t cut the garden in half.
- Lay sub base of smashed up concrete blocks (which I found underneath the decking, handy).
- Lay some ballast on top and compact, to fill gaps/help level it nicely.
- Make up cement and lay patio slabs.
- Lay turf on rest of area.
- Make a pebbled area near the extension window to put some potted plants on.
- Make some more side borders and plant some stuff to make it look all pwetty.
Here is what we’ve bought so far:
| Where? | What? | Cost? |
| B&Q | Patio slabs 20sq.m | £628.00 |
| Screwfix | Titan Angle Grinder | £29.99 |
| Soft Handled Trowel Set 6Pc | £14.99 | |
| Site Optimus Gel Knee Pads | £15.99 | |
| Flexi Tubs Yellow Pack of 2 | £18.99 | |
| Ear Defenders 29.8dB SNR | £5.99 | |
| Rubber Mallet 24oz | £6.49 | |
| Wickes | Sharp sand bags x 34 | £54.06 |
| Ballast bags x 34 | £64.26 | |
| Cement x 3 | £14.25 | |
| Total | £853.01 |
I’m sure some of these purchases are superfluous (ahem gel knee pads cough cough) but I’ve learned from past projects to get as much kit as you can to make it as easy as possible! I’m saving a ton of money by doing it all myself anyway so an extra £50 or £100 on tools/equipment I may not need is no biggie.
I’m hoping there won’t be much left to buy for this first stint of the project, but eventually I do want a small shed at the back of the garden which will probably wait till next year. I’m sure there are some other things we’ll buy such as a few plants, and cosmetic bits and bobs. Hopefully we can come in around the grand mark!
Finally here are some before pics and a few pics I took throughout day one. See you tomorrow for some more pics!
Before pic 1
Before pic 2
Before pic 3
Random mushroom underneath the decking!
Most of the decking gone – as well as my back, haha!
Final pic of day 1
And this is what the arse end of our kitchen currently looks like! 🙂
Discussion (15) ¬
Hi TFS,
Talk about timing as I quickly check in this evening! Congratulations for taking on a pretty major piece of work, hopefully the rain will keep off for long enough to let you finish it all!
Funnily enough we looked at our garden and want to do if we got someone in to do it, and it was quite pricey (just the design quote we never got any further!). I just know that I am not that DIY and certainly wouldnt do what you are doing, but I am definitely going to follow it with interest! I suspect having a 4 week block off helps to focus on it rather than squeeze it into the weekends around the job, good luck!
Cheers,
FiL
Haha that was an extraordinarily quick comment FiL 🙂
Yea I thought about getting someone in to design it but then I thought we just wanted something simple for the kid anyway. I looked at garden ideas on google images and on a few of those garden TV shows and they are so ridiculous, you’d have to hire a gardener (or be already fully FI and have no small children to look after!) to deal with the upkeep, even on the smaller ones!
“I just know that I am not that DIY” – Ah c’mon… everyone has to start somewhere, and to be honest I still would say that I am not that DIY, but I like to at least try. DI-trY you could maybe call it haha. But yea fair play, I know you are still crushing it on the full time work front and I definitely would NOT waste my weekends or holiday on this sort of thing if I were still doing that, it really is very time consuming!
Cheers!
Good luck, it looks like a big task! How do you plan on leveling it all out nicely? We’ve just moved house and the garden is overgrown and bumpy, I want to rip it all up and put down flags but unsure how to level it out!
Hi Vinny,
For the patio, I am going to dig it by eye at first then hammer some wooden pegs into the ground every so often, and use a level (I bought a laser level for this but it might actually be easier to do it with a really long normal spirit level thinking about it) to make sure all the wooden pegs are level, then make sure the ground in between the pegs is level to the pegs… hopefully that makes sense but if not look out for the update at the end of the day tomorrow and I’ll post up some pictures of it.
For the turfed area I am just going to do it roughly by eye as a few bumps in the grass is not going to hurt anyone.
Cheers!
Kudos for starting this. Once finished, it will be a great garden.
Cheers AT mate! 🙂
This looks like great fun!! Always love a goood DIY project! Look forward to seeing your progress.
Glad to see a few people interested… ta for letting me know as well!
Love seeing this. I understand why you want to do it for the kiddo, but I do think it was a lovely backyard beforehand. Looking forward to seeing the results of your effort (from the comfort of my bed, hehe). Also, gel knee pads? Totally going to be worth it.
Thanks Mrs ETT.
I think maybe the pictures of what it looked like before made it look a bit better than it was!?
Honestly there was a massive hole in the middle of the decking, it was rotting to hell and a total death trap. When I ripped it up one of the support struts was totally rotten and I just lent on it and it fell right through.
So I’m pretty glad we decided to get it up as soon as we did.
And also it looks so much bigger already since taking the decking down and “dezoning” everything. I appreciate when gardens are intricate and have lots of nice little areas but this garden was nowhere near that sort of thing and yet broke the garden up into lots of almost unusable areas, even the deck area once you put a table up there to eat you could barely fit all the chairs around it. Rubbish! Haha. Anyway I guess you know my feelings on it by now so I will stop going on about it.
Thanks again and will let you know if the knee pads do come in handy! 🙂
Man, you did a ton in the first day! Good on you.
I have a real envy for DIY renovators, as I am not one of them. I really do appreciate getting to see your project in real time though. As always, more pics please!
Thank you DbF and look out for more updates on the way… cheers!
Ah yes – the blight of suburban decking! Glad to hear you are going back to nature and doing your bit for the environment.
I dunno, I felt a bit bad about just ditching all of that wood!?
Either way it had to go and yes I prefer a “greener” garden as it sounds like you do yourself. Thanks! 🙂