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<\/a>A man and his wheelbarrow. (Cheers for the shirt, Paul.)<\/p><\/div>\n
Our first job was pretty modest: after the work on our new bathroom, the trench through the yard had messed up some of the garden borders. So we made a new one. It’s not going to win any awards for style, but it works.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Lime-washed concrete garden border. Our very first concrete job!<\/p><\/div>\n
Then we really got started. In the courtyard, the stairs up to the garden had a strange first step that was twice as tall as it should have been, making the stairs very awkward. So we built a new step, out of formed concrete with wire mesh for reinforcement, and tiled it to look like the others.<\/p>\n
<\/a>That bottom step is new. Much more comfortable to walk up the stairs now!<\/p><\/div>\n
We also made a new curved concrete ramp for the door to the barn, and a new sill for the kitchen window (the previous one had crumbled when they took the old window out).<\/p>\n
<\/a>This used to be a sudden step down to the barn floor level. Curved ramp makes it easier to roll things in and out of the barn.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>New window needed a new concrete sill. Further plasterwork needed around the edges…<\/p><\/div>\n
We’ve even started on some bricklaying, adding a few courses to a wall at the front of the house to help with privacy. No photos of that yet, though.<\/p>\n
Concrete is of course a bit grey, so I thought I should add some photos of more colourful stuff. Here’s another insect visitor to our garden: a praying mantis that \u00a0helpfully sat right next to one of our outside lights one night and watched us as much as we were watching him.<\/p>\n