First house - Project time!

dymetrie

dymetrie

dymetrie

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Joined
19 Jul 2005
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2,273
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Lonetrek
At the start of the year me and the wife bought our first house! :)

Fancy, eh?

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It's a shiny new build 3 bed semi in the middle of nowhere. So far we've not done much other than move in, unpack some stuff and make it a bit easier to live in (eg: put up shelves and a cabinet in the bathroom, put up a washing line).

One of the things I love about it is the hallway which is lovely and open, so not much to do there ...

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The first project is going to be the garden. Currently we have a path which runs along the side of the house, from the front gate to a gate into the wilderness buffer at the rear of the property. Unfortunately the developers didn't think it'd be a good idea to have the path go to the shed, so there's a nice muddy spot outside the door from getting my bike out every day.

Paltry patio:

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Path to pointless gate:

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Muddy fronted shed:

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The plan is to remove the path to the rear gate and replace it with a flower bed, extend the patio out by another 2-3 feet across the entire rear of the house and run a path out to the shed. I'd quite like to slightly extend part of the path by the side of the house (not pictured) so that the bins can be out of the way.

We've got a couple of chaps coming in to give us quotes next week, but does anyone have any idea what would be a reasonable amount for the work involved? Hopefully we won't need many more paving slabs, so mostly going to be labour costs...
 
Fence is falling down already. Can't believe builders are still using that sort of panel, they are useless in high winds.
 
The panels are fine, it's the shoddily seated post at the end which is the problem.

Anyway, it's been reported and is due for repair under defects.
 
Me I'd lift the shed up by 6" before you fill it up with junk.

I'd also lower the stupid level access to the front we are made to do by lifetime homes.

I'd also throw the crappy fencing away and fit some decent feather edge post and rail now whilst it'll be the minimum disruption.

Sling the stupid ugly rainwater butt they've installed for code points.

For what you want though £500
 
Will look into lifting the shed. It's already got a good thick concrete foundation with a bike stand.

What's your issue with the level access at the front? From my perspective, with a novice walker and a soon to be walker, it's really useful!

Would love to replace the fencing, but most of it is owned by the property next door and we have more important things to spend our meagre budget on (boarding the loft is stupidly important so that we can double/triple/quadruple? our storage options).

The butt stays as it's the only water source in the garden (kitchen is at the front of the house and I'm not lugging watering cans full of water through the living room), but it will most likely be shifted around the corner away from the back door.

:)
 
It's mandatory to get CML and be compliant for Lifetime homes but it's yours now you can do what every you want with it.

Reason I say, is just a step will give you some more protection from water splashing and getting in, yes it doesn't matter now as it's all new but once the seals start to wear out....... it's just a thought, I probably wouldn't be bothered anyway :p

Shed lifting is to get it away from the grass and give it some ventilation underneath otherwise it may rot in a couple of years knowing what we paid for sheds I wouldn't bank on them lasting more than one storm or a few years.
 
Couple of things I would do is

Put up smoke alarms

Get an alarm installed, depending on if your going to get dogs.

House insurance ! many new home owners skimp on this which you shouldn't.
 
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