Spring Spruce Ups

At the back of our house a former owner had planned to build a conservatory, but only got as far as having a  concrete foundation laid. We never found out the actual reason why he didn't get any further, although various neighbours offered their explanations. However maybe one day we would add one ourselves. Regardless of the reasons, the bare concrete was not the most attractive feature to be confronted by as you entered the garden, so a few years ago we decided to cover it over, deciding that it would be too big a job to remove the foundation. We considered a number of options for what materials to use, perhaps matching the paving slabs used on the lower patio area adjacent to the concrete, or finding a stone of similar color to the tiles on the kitchen floor to connect the two areas. However after weighing up the various possibilities we opted to lay a deck. 

This in itself was a fairly simple process to undertake, made easier by having the flat concrete to work on top of, and in my opinion greatly improved the entrance to the garden. Normally I prefer smooth decking rather than that with ridges in it, however as it does get shady in this area we opted for ridged to reduce the risk of it being slippery.

Sub frame for the deck, with the ugly concrete underneath

Positioning the boards

Nearly finished

However time and weather takes its toll, especially as this is a fairly shady area and so algae and moss was starting to get a hold in some areas, plus whilst digging the koi pond we generated a lot of dusty chalk that both Mark and I as well as the cats were treading into the deck.

Once the pond was finished, we planned to give this a make over, sanding it down and then repaint. However I remembered my Dad's pressure washer tucked away in the shed so wondered how well that would do on the deck. You may remember the post from a couple of months back when we jet washed it. The results were almost instant, blasting off the algae and years of dirt, much of the old paint was also removed leaving a clean finish ready for repainting. And that's exactly what Mark has been up to over the last couple of days.

Blasting away the grime

Freshy cleaned

We had bought a 2.5l (0.66 US Gal) can of deck stain - opting to go for a good quality one able to cope well with the high level of foot (and paw) traffic across it. In theory this should have been more than enough but the bare and dry wood really did just drink up the paint so a second can was needed. 
As well as being able to get the deck re-stained with the nicer weather I was also able to finish off a couple of small jobs on the newly laid middle patio (see here for the makeover), although we have not pointed the joints this time I wanted to cement the edges of the patio to ensure the block edging doesn't move. After all whilst we know it may move again with subsidence, we don't want to stand on the edge stones and for them to move. 

Spot the difference...

As regular readers know we usually have a list of planned jobs and activities ahead of us, so one of the next now being planned is to build a small tool shed/storage near to the koi filter house. This part of the garden is almost as far from the existing tool shed as would be possible to get so a small store for all our garden tools would be useful. 

However it will need to be a due purpose store, when we planned to build the filter house at that point we did not know the exact layout or filters we would use and had planned to add storage within the filter house for various pond related items. However when we were setting things out we opted to have plenty of room to get round the filters which would make maintenance much easier, plus we decided we liked the uncluttered look in there. As a result we need an additional storage space. As always I have several ideas to exactly how this store will look. 

With the various spring jobs we have been doing lately I joked to Mark that it feels like we are a holiday camp getting ready for the summer season!

Gaz

now what else can I jet wash.... :)