The Great Shed Revamp

That's right, we have finally begun the great shed revamp, the first step in building what will eventually become the chicken coop!

We have a very old shed up near our cottage, it has needed tidying up since we moved in but has been far down the list of jobs to do, however Rich has promised me Chickens for my birthday (end of May!) and the only place for a good sized coop is on the concrete slab next to the shed. This however means that all the old ship lap that covers the front of the shed has to be removed, its old and a bit tatty and the gaps between the planks would be a nice breeding ground for lice, so we're replacing it with tight fitting tongue and groove. Here's Rich removing the old planks...



As the tongue and groove is being used outside it needed to be treated with something the keeps it weather proof, we decided on a coloured stain so from one slightly tatty brown shed to a lovely blue one...



It goes really nice against the Bath stone don't you think!



Above you can see the space where Rich will build the coop. Poor love, he does get asked to do the impossible by me sometimes! He was supposed to be building this with my Dad so sadly now its going to have to be a solo project. I have every faith in my lovely Husband, I'm sure he's going to make a brilliant job of it!

While Rich was making our shed look pretty, I was trying to tidy up our neglected pond. I think I've mentioned the pond before, it acts as a water butt for the run off from the roof of the cottage, I wish I could take credit for this great idea but it was the old couple who owned our house before us who installed it. Basically there's a splitter coming off the down pipe that then travels under the patio, through a flower bread and a rockery and out into the pond. I use it all summer to water the pots on the patio and every year we get a lot of frogs and newts in it (which I like to thinks keeps the slug population in check).

Over the last couple of years it has got very over grown, so the weekend was a perfect time to give it a much needed trim...





A vast improvement! and as I was clearing it this little chap came out from the weeds...



And lastly another little project that we will eventually get round to finishing is my new vegetable rack. Our cottage is tiny so storage of any kind is limited, and storing our crops is always tricky. I brought these lovely old apple bushels from the wonderful Gardenalia for the amazingly bargainus price of £7 each!!!



These will be sanded, wood worm treated and then made into a unit for storing, potatoes, onions ect...



Not sure when we'll get this finished, Rich and I both have books to finish up, and I'm running off for 2 weeks hols, I'll add it to the ever lengthening list!