A Path, A Wall, A Door

As I said in my previous post, in order to finish the garden path I had to start the garden wall (previous episode).

To start the wall, I had to dig a trench, put in a concrete foundation, and put down a couple of courses of bricks. Then I could fill in the gap with dirt, put down some sand, and only then could I lay the path on that sand.

Of course, I could have just built the walls first, but there was some pressure from the beloved to get the path done before anything else.With the path done to the beloved's satisfaction, I could go onto the rest of the first of the walls. And now it's done.

And, it doesn't look too bad. Certainly not as bad as I thought it could have been. Oh, a brickie would take a quick glance at it and laugh him/herself all the way to hospital. But I am quietly quite happy with its looks. Yes, I'm very careful to say "looks", as its strength in holding back a garden bed is yet to be tested. I'm now quietly confident in my ability to build another wall for another garden bed for my beloved. But that will have to wait until after the new doors have been painted.



At some stage, the previous owner had put on an extension, which she used as a an artist's studio - not so strange, as she was/is an artist. However, it looks as though the builder of the studio may just have cut a few corners - to say the least - and we've had to do quite a lot of work on it. Like re-roofing it, ripping out rotten timbers, putting in supporting walls, re-plastering it, and so on.

We've been using the studio as storage space, mainly because it was open to the outside. Last week, in an exciting development and after months of waiting, new doors went in both internally and externally. So, now it's supposedly weather-proofed.

The day after the doors were installed, the rain started. And it hasn't stopped. Oh, it hasn't been really heavy rain at any stage, and it has really stopped. It's just been that as the new (external, double) doors dry out, down comes another load of rain, meaning that the doors never really have a chance to dry out.

So, one day, during a break in the rain, I went out there with a ladder, some plastic and some duct tape. And then I noticed that the doors seemed to be dry, as they faced away from the rain. Except in one spot, at the top in the middle. There is a leak coming from the roofing or the guttering that just drip-drip-drips, consistently and persistently. As I was out there, I decided to keep going with the plastic, only to make the discovery that, while duct tape sticks to just about every and anything, it doesn't stick to wet or damp surfaces at all. My initial attempts at putting up a screen didn't work out at all well. In the end, I managed to choose the right time, and got a screen up.

All I want to do is to get at least one undercoat on the bare timber on the outside of the new doors - if only the rain would stop, and if only that drip-drip-drip would stop.