The Finishing Touch

A few weeks ago we turned our garden shed into a garden cottage. It went from this

to this. Much better, I'm sure you'll agree.


But we were not done yet, because what I haven't shown you is that the roof needed some work as well.
On this picture above you see part of the garden cottage's roof with the first plank removed. The roof is actually made of floorboards with tongue and groove. On both sides of the roof the first floorboard was rotted through and through. When the under-gardener removed them, this happened.
The wood literally went to pieces. After measuring the thickness, width and length of the floorboards that needed replacing, we went and bought 2 lengths of floorboard with tongue and groove. Both floorboards were cut to size and slotted into place and nailed down as you can see here.
But that was not all. A few years ago the trim of the roof was also removed because that was rotten as well. So that needed replacing too. Two more planks were bought for this job, this time without tongue and groove.
And while the under-gardener was taking a break, a very curious person came along to see what was happening.

Mr Blackbird, checking if everything is going according to plan.
To finish off the job nicely, the roof was edged with 2 narrow planks on top to keep the rain from seeping in. And below you see the almost finished result.

Almost, but not quite as the new wood needed a lick of paint too of course. No guesses as to who got her paintbrush out. Again!

BTW now that it's a garden cottage instead of a shed, perhaps we should give it a name? Any suggestions fellow garden bloggers?
And here it is, the finished result. Surprise is checking it out to see if she will give it her stamp of approval. So, at last it's done. Well, not really because lookee, lookee here, more of that horrible brown paint!

Yes, my next project is painting the conservatory and as it's big, it will take quite some time before I'll be putting the finishing touches on this one.
It will be painted white with ochre yellow accents to compliment both the garden cottage and the ochre yellow gravel path that runs along the conservatory. If you look carefully (click to enlarge), you'll see that I've already started painting the conservatory. All the wood has to be sanded first, then cleaned and finally painted. The white paint will take 3 coats and the yellow two, so it's quite a job but when it's finished it will look a treat!

Oh hello, here's that kittycat again. Cute, isn't it? Who's that, I hear you say? Not to worry, all will be revealed ......... soon.

It's impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
Jerome K. Jerome, On Being Idle