House Renovation. One Year On. 27.05.12

So, this is what our kitchen looked like on the 27th of May 2011. Quite something, isn't it? A bit of al fresco going on, living at one with the elements. You can see the drop in floor level that marks where the original house ends and the extension begins. Luckily the builders levelled the floor out so we're not constantly tripping up/falling down a step when we walk around in the kitchen and living room.

These days we're going for the more everyday kind of look, with windows, walls, a ceiling, and plenty of kitchen mess. Very au courrant.

 Turning to the right, this is what would become our living area: again, open to the elements...

But these days, we are immune to all that nature stuff - we have windows, we have french doors, we have a ceiling. We live a life of luxury!

 And a little trip outside on 27th May 2011. A little more of the extension's rear wall is in place.

Whereas today, we have all of the wall, and the windows and lots of patio-based detritus...

 And now, to the garden. I'm totally amazed by these photos from 27th of May 2011; the garden was just soooo overgrown. In the background you can just about make out a couple of the woodshed's windows; to the right of the photo is one of the apple trees and in the middle (in front of the woodshed) is what was a fruit cage (full of raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants and red currants), but the cage itself was in a pretty bad state - ie the wooded posts holding it up had rotted, the metal posts had collapsed and the netting was sagging under a ton of dead leaves.

And now, the fruit cage has been dismantled, the fruit bushes removed (we have two large beds full of raspberries in the middle of the vegetable patch, so we didn't really need more, we also don't like red or black currants; the gooseberry bush survived the cull though and is now flourishing in the middle of the chicken run), the apple trees have been trimmed, the rose bushes cut back, other plants/weeds have been hacked back, and the chickens have been installed in their very own fenced-in area (to keep their poo off the patio and their hungry little beaks out of the veggie beds!)

And now you can actually see the woodshed from this side of the garden.

 This area up against the lovely back wall used to be somewhat of a dumping ground: 27th May 2011

 Now, it's hubby's pride and joy - just one of several productive veggie beds he has established in this part of the garden. Quite an improvement just one year on.