duztee

Weather is warming up nicely so I guess it's time to crawl out from hibernation and see what needs repair and improvement.

This year the plan is to demolish the old chicken shed and put up a garage in it's place.

Hopefully it will be easier than last years project of laying a new drive, which took the best part of a dozen different tradesmen, all separately commissioned to do their individual little bit and 8 weeks of mud, mess and disruption.

But I am not holding my breath!

fidobsa

Some of us have been grafting away all winter doing internal renovations and improvements! My next outside project is to demolish a very dodgy looking chimney down to roof level then patch up the resulting hole in the roof. The trouble is, one job always seems to lead to another. To do the chimney I will remove some roof tiles and work from inside the loft on a tall stepladder. I can't get the stepladder in my tiny car though so I might have to make a roof rack, unless I can find some sort of universal one.

PaulinEger

Some of us have also been busy
Before Christmas I changed the bedroom and living round. Our living room was much smaller than the bedroom. In order to do that I had to build a new stud wall which, in turn, created a small cloakroom. A few weeks ago I also started building a wooden terrace and wood shed outside, overlooking the garden and out to the forest. This involved knocking down a couple of small outbuildings first. As it's on a slope the front of the terrace is on stilts. Also, last Wednesday we had a new concrete bathroom floor laid and I put down a new concrete garage floor. When the terrace is finished I will block pave the area to the side and build a fire pit. After that, who knows. We need to create a new bathroom from scratch but I don't think we'll have the funds until autumn.

duztee

My admiration to you both.

Fid: sounds like a very Hungarian way to tackle the chimney, :-)
Paul: Now you are just getting too carried away, need to leave something for next year!

PaulinEger

I'm sure my wife will find something else to do next year :/
Personally, I'd like to build a very large pond in the garden but that may be a few years away.

mawood47

Just started pre-work for new build in June 30m2 9m by 3.3 size to be in line with land area Store shed fully insulated, E-one hear next week to move electricity cost 80.000fh including support column move meter over, wire up in store shed then demolition to old building the new plot is elevated with fantastic views including the big lake going for two lofts on each end open in middle gantry coupling the two lofts planning went well as it is only a timber frame lightweight house so that's that I my make the completion if all go's well with treatment

TerryandBrigi

All looks very familiar to me ! Not an area or room not started this year already !
I need not worry though, will be plenty for this year and the next few, I think !!

fidobsa

I think I tackled jobs like a Hungarian would do them long before I met any Hungarians! I managed without the stepladder in the end. Instead I used a home made rustic ladder leaned against a batten to take down the first few courses of bricks then reverted to my normal size stepladder for the lower courses.

The biggest challenge was finding spare tiles to fill in the hole. There were loads of spare tiles stacked in various piles about the place but none of the exact design used on that section of the roof. In the end I opted to replace one complete row of 40 tiles with a slightly different type then use the ones I had removed to make up the patch. The result probably looks better than if I had bought brand new ones (if they are still made) as they would stand out like a sore thumb amongst the old, weathered tiles.

The old chimney was as weak as it looked and I didn't need hammer & chisel or anything to demolish it, I just lifted off bricks with my hands! If the same house was located where I used to live in north east Scotland, that chimney would have blown down long since.

duztee

Ha! Fid,
I know that feeling. house, extension, lean-to roof and chicken shed are all different tiles and none of them match any of the various piles lying around the yard.

I gave the tiles from the chicken shed away (1500 of them) on the condition they removed them and also took off the battens and 'A' frames for me, saving me from shinning up and down a ladder.

Not decided what to do with the mountain of wood I now have, definitely can't burn it, it has had many coats of preservative, so gives off an evil smelling thick black smoke. which living in the middle of town will not be popular with my neighbours.

fidobsa

I have a friend in Kecskemét. I could ask him if he knows of someone who needs roof timber. In UK I would put it on Freecycle but I don't think they have anything like that here.

duztee

Thanks Fid, but it is not good sawn timber, the shed was made from a motely collection of branches straight from the tree clad in old pallets etc.
And despite the preservative a lot of it is worm infested, hence the reason for demolishing it.

Rural Hungary

Are they long/regular enough to make a garden feature or raised bed out of?

wolfi

We've already finished what we set out to do:

I rearranged our summer kitchen on our roofed terrace and my wife repainted again all the wooden furniture there and the other wooden stuff - so now we're ready for our guests!
Hopefully the weather will improve so we can cook, grill and eat outside ...

duztee

Spot on Rural, good guess.

Since two of the old beams are 7 mtrs long and many of the others are around 3 mts I am building a gazebo/pagoda type structure to cover with climbing plants.
Some nice honeysuckle should give a pleasant place to sit in the evenings.

It will definitely have a rustic look since all of the beams are of the typical Hungarian straight from the tree type.

wolfi

Duztee, just be careful with the selection of those climbing plants!

We had what they call "lila akác" here and it grew so thick and strong that after around 15 years it destroyed the wooden beams - because it had overgrown them we also didn't think of painting them again, so maybe the rainwater helped ..

Now we have mainly grapevines climbing up the sunny side - they not only ive some shade but also really nice grapes!