Not sure what to do with this muddy area in garden..

A chap on Adverts was given the duty of making up some flowerbeds for the deck area. They came out well I thought. Fair play to him.


Threw in some little trees, and then a few little flowers, just for a bit of colour. Looks well, in my opinion (albeit the deck itself is filthy).












I reckon I might throw some random gravel along the top of the flowerbeds (between the flowers) just to brighten up a bit.

And that's pretty much everything so far, really. Hope to have the rabbit run made by Wednesday, and the ceiling in the small shed done.


Something that's got me flip-flopping a bit is whether or not to take down the ceiling of MDF in the big shed and replace with plywood or not. Not sure what to do. The roof itself as it is isn't too bad, but that said, it could be better. It's also got a bit (though not a lot) of sagging going on with it. I reckon the cost of buying the ply alone will be about €200 to do it. Money I'd rather not spend if I don't have to, but money that might be better spent on that than trying to put up a partition wall against a ceiling that's not in the best of shape. Decisions, decisions. Just not sure if a ply ceiling will really benefit me.

Say hello.. to my little friends!





I never intended on having 3 rabbits, but there were only three in the shop when I went in. I bought two. The third one looked quite sad when they were taken out and was on his hind legs looking up for them (they were lifted out of their box in the shop, via the roof of it) for about the 5 solid minutes it took me to pay and leave. As a 27 year old man, I don't mind saying I was nearly tearing up thinking of him on his own in there and his only two mates gone (or brother and sister, as it is, I suppose). So halfway home I had to turn the car and go back and get him (the one on the left, in the picture).

It was souring the whole experience otherwise. So now I have three Female and two male (so neutering will be needed).


At the moment they're living in a big plastic box in my bedroom until Monday, I'd say, when they'll be homed in the run in the garden. I want them to get used to being outdoors but dont want them out in torrential rain on day one, and the run isn't fully finished yet, so still a small bit of work to be done, there, too.

They're only 8 weeks old, so they're tiny. In the picture above, left to right, they've been named Dig, Dug and Daisy. :P They're great fun to watch so far (although they're quite nervous so giving them a bit of space to settle in).


EDIT: Oh, and they're three Lops (hangy down ears, instead of pointy up ones. They will all eventually hang down, but at the moment I've got a full lop (both down), a half lop (one down, one up) and a no-lop (both up)) Lots of variety.

Happyman42 wrote: »

Maybe you know that you can get 100lt water butts that bolt directly to a wall. Just thought I would say.

Never seen that before, actually. Looks clever. Where would you get something like that? Has it got a name? I noticed Woodies are doing 100ltr (normal) butts for €30, and 210ltr for €40. From looking online, they seem exceptionally reasonably priced.

Happyman42 wrote: »

expensive

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Litre-Wall-Mounted-Water-Butt/dp/B00T4EUXPA/ref=pd_sim_sbs_86_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=1QCRG01TF80J8C2BS7QT

Hmm.. I think I'll settle for the €30 roundy one. Even if it does look like it was made by Fisher Price

Zebrano wrote: »

Hows the rabbits

Woops.. Apologies for the lack of updating!


A bit of a family fall out occurred, meaning the garden was put on hold in general.

We're all friends again now, though, so a bit of upkeep has resumed.


I changed the small shed into a little home gym.

Before:



After:





Obviously still some work needs doing there (ceiling not finished or fully painted, etc) but for the most part I won't really be fixing anything else til the summer rolls around again.

I got a skip to clear off the rest of the crap that was stuck down the side of the house from the summer refurb of the Garden. Still a bit of cleaning needs doing along there (paint cans, etc that didn't fit into the skip) but I'll get rid of those over the coming days/weeks in the wheelie bins.

Before:



After:






One of the bedrooms in the house (that got tangled up in the garden because I got some free sliderobes from a shop that was closing, and they took up too much space in the sheds) has been getting a bit of a doing up, to try and get the sliderobes out of the sheds and into use. Unfortunately the sliderobes are still in the shed, taking up space, but should be in the room by the end of this week, I'd say (the bedroom's most recent photos were literally taken today).


Before > After photos:


Cluttered mess that it was, with every bit of old tat under the sun thrown into it (like most spare rooms, I'd imagine)




Cleared it out, pulled the shelving down, tore up desk, etc.




Lifted floor and Painted walls, ceiling, skirting, etc.




Put down a new carpet (well, got one fitted, I didn't actually DIY it as I'd only make a mess of it and carpet wouldn't be my strong point), got a new bed/mattress, bedside locker, etc.



I work out the cost of revamping the room like that breaks down as:

Carpet, underlay, fitting: €350
4'6" Divan bed, mattress, headboard: €275
Paint costs: €50
Painter: €60
Duvet, pillows, bed sheet, covers for duvet/pillows, curtain pole: €50
Bedside locker and canvas print for wall: €55

Which totals out at €840, which I don't think is too bad, really, all things considered. I was surprised I could get a bed at that price (I'll put my hands up and say it's not the best mattress you'll ever own, but as someone who has worked in furniture/bedding before, it's a decent enough one for the price. Wouldn't buy it for my own bed but as a spare.. dead right!).



The rabbits themselves are happy and seem to have settled in a bit. 2 of them are happy enough to be petted, rubbed, touched, etc. but one of them (the girl) does a bit of 'thumping' and runs away if you go near her, so I tend to go easy on her. I find it mad that rabbits can have such different personalities! I've the three of them there, and they're all so different in many ways.

I haven't any real up to date photos of them, but here they are from a month or so ago, sleeping in a basket together (was zoomed in on the camera, as otherwise i'd have interrupted them)






The big shed is still a disaster inside:







But once the sliderobes come out to go into the bedroom, I'll be able to clear that all out into a smaller skip I'd say, and paint it up, etc. to a (hopefully) decent standard. The pressing issue there is that the floor is still getting very wet inside (not sure how, but i think it's from where the doors are) and the ground is very uneven in it.


That's pretty much all I have done since I last updated, to be honest. The small shed got the most progress (the original plan was to put a partition wall in the big shed and make a small home gym in it, but I think it was probably a better decision to do it in the small shed). I just don't really know what do to with the big shed, now, though. Was going to try and turn it into a bit of a dedicated car wash space/garage area, but I'm not sure (and even if i do that, I'd rather it was somewhat dual purpose, as I won't always need to have the car inside it, even if i am cleaning it). Any suggestions are always welcome!


In the mean time, here's a video of the rabbits first day in their outdoor run, back in August:





(it has since been re-organised, had new houses etc. put in, covers over it and such to make it a bit more winter-proof).

Cheers XR3i. Still a fair bit to do in it, but I'm glad I got it all started during the summer this year. It's an enormous improvement over what it was before, and although it's seemingly going to be the never-ending project, it's keeping me occupied in my downtime, too, so it's not too bad.

The thoughts of having to dismantle the slide robes, bring them to the room in the house, and re-assemble them (standing up, as they're too tall to assemble on the floor and then lift into place!) is giving me nightmares. Dreading doing it, and know it'll be an enormous pain in the ass (but at least when that's done, then that's the bedroom practically finished with for the time being, too!).