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Courtyard Patio - Day One

 Arrived home from work today to find our driveway half full of dumpy bags of building materials, limestone slabs, and sleepers, and the other half full a massive lump of a truck and accompanying trailer. I nudged my car as far into the grass verge of the road side as possible and prayed it wouldn’t get walloped by a lunatic driver whilst it sat there. 

Around the back of the house, chaos had arrived in the form of Dan the Landscaping Man and his Trusty Assistant Charlie. There was STUFF everywhere. Rubble, rubbish, bits of wood, a whole building yard of tools, wheelbarrows and cement mixers…and noise, too…lots of loud noisy noise. 

This is the prettiest current view from our back door. I dare not show you photos of the areas to either side of this for fear you think we had suffered a bomb strike.

I told myself that order comes from chaos. Always. Quite frankly, I was glad that I hadn’t received any phone calls during the day announcing something nasty had been found under the old patio.

Dan the Landscaping Man immediately bombarded me with questions regarding how I wanted certain aspects of the build to look. Did I want double width steps or single width? Double width meant the ever-struggling honeysuckle would have to go, but would make a neater finish to the left hand side by the oil tank. Did I want the limestone slabs to butt right up to the edge of the newly installed front sleeper which was now hiding the oil tank pipe, or did I want that section filled with gravel in case the oil pipe needed accessing in the future? How wide did I want the new herb beds? How deep did I want the new herb beds? Would I like the exposed part of the cement slab the studio is sitting on clad in wood to make it blend in better? How did I feel about the gap at the right hand side of the steps having its current retainer slabs removed and back filled with topsoil to make a neater finish against the new sleeper risers? Did I realise the new patio would be about three inches higher than the old one, but it would look much better against the studio - was that all right? 

I said I would give these questions serious thought and let him know tomorrow. He said that would be great - he’d got all the materials to do a proper job so we might as well do a proper job, eh? And then he and Charlie left and I consulted my brother about all things oil pipe because he is wise about these things.

And then I made a quiche and a carrot cake whilst I thought about these things because, as good writing ideas always come when I am either washing up or on the toilet, solutions to dilemmas always come when I am baking. 

And then Andy came home and I shared the design dilemma ideas with him, and we decided on double width steps, narrow but deep herb beds, and a completely concealed-by-slabs oil pipe. And yes to all the other aesthetic suggestions made by Dan the Landscaping Man. 

I’m glad I am at work tomorrow though. I think things may get more chaotic and noisy before they become more ordered and quiet. 


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