It never rains but it pours! Episode # 3 and French Beans

Today was going to be another China post but I have quite finished uploading pictures, so instead it's a bit of an update

Have you been wondering if I'm sitting on the new decking yet, well the answer is no although there has been a little progress. Some of the gaps in the underneath areas have been filled, the walls have been cleaned and painted and the support beams have been fitted. Yesterday evening EmBee was cutting the timber to the correct lengths and pondering on the width of the gaps. He has now decided, that he will need two more boards which he can't get until tomorrow. He is out all day Saturday, so realistically I can't see this being finished in time for me to treat the finished deck before I go to Dublin to visit Beccy next Wednesday.

N.B. That means it will need to be covered to keep it dry until I return...wonder if EmBee has considered this!

Oh and by the way.... we are going to have a fun trip while I'm in Ireland so hopefully there will be photos!

Also thought I would share the first picking of our French beans.
I'm looking forward to these and I won't need to share them because EmBee is going out for dinner straight from work.

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2008: Special Greetings to Nikki + Witty Wednesday-55
2007: Fun Monday-24

It never rains but it pours! Episode # 2 Decking Boards

What did I do today! In all the heat I treated the underside of the new decking boards. Big mistake because I was out there far too long in the midday sun and made myself feel a bit sick. This was one of the reasons I started this post and then didn't actually publish it until now.

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It never rains but it pours! Episode # 1

Last weekend we embarked on a new project and not one that we really imagined we would be doing. I think I mentioned earlier in the year that Embee painted the railings around our little balcony at the rear of our house. Once he'd finished painting I then cleaned the decking, in doing this I noticed that some of the supports were beginning to rot and had some wood worm. At first we thought it was just the exterior pieces of wood that could easily be replaced. However once these were removed we realised that we would need to lift some of the decking and check further. I expect you've guessed by now that we eventually discovered, it was not a simple task. The current decking, which is solid mahogany, had been so well laid (by Embee) it could not be easily removed without damage, so the whole lot had to come up and everything is being replaced.
The quality of the new decking is nothing like as superior as the old and I'm not sure that I will really like it. I've been trying to remember just how long it has been down but it's certainly not the 20 yrs Embee thought it would last. I remember him saying it would see us out- well he got that wrong! The start of the task.Not looking good!Out with the old, even the good stuff.Some things are best done sitting down. and on Sunday evening you are left with a gaping hole.

Of course I then decided that we should clean and repaint the walls, and I know it will not be seen but it will certainly tidy it up nicely. Yesterday I scrubbed the walls with bleach to get rid of the mould and Embee has given them a couple of coats of masonary paint and they look so much better, despite the rainstorms we had last night.

I meant to take a picture this evening but forgot. All the old wood is being recycled to a pal of Embee's who is using it to fuel his wood burner so that's good.

The timber decking needs to fully dry out before I can treat it and with thunderstorms every night I have no idea how long this will take.

Next stage is the fix the supports...so to be continued.

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