Thursday, November 29, 2012

We're BAAACKK!

To paraphrase Jack Nicholson from "The Shining" ... "We're baaaaaack !"

Long time followers will know we spent some 10 months in SE Asia, primarily in Cambodia .. a blog of those exploits is here for those who have come to this blog from somewhere else

While we were away

While we were away we had a wonderful friend, Stephen Alldridge, looking after the place for us.  Stephen is very "handy" and undertook a huge number of renovation and improvement projects for us, bringing our mud brick cottage up to tip top shape.  

Cottage upgrades

Some of the upgrades Steve did included:
Shower cover & guttering for outdoor shower
Drain in the pavers for outdoor shower
Replaced rotting cottage support logs; one with steel pole for the shower, one under the side veranda with ironwood
Installing a rangehood in the kitchen
Installing a two pot sink
Resurfacing kitchen bench
Replacing cracked indoor bath with new bath/shower combo
Replacing old leaking bathroom hand basin
Installing bidet sprayer (a must for us after using one for 9 months in SE Asia) in toilet
Removing ferns beside house and replacing with rock garden (allowing side of house to dry)
Remove old pergola and outdoor brick BBQ
and whole swag of smaller jobs from servicing the pump, to tracing leaks in the lines etc

and  other jobs that I have probably missed. Here's a quick pictorial tribute




Garden Upgrades

Steve also has a green thumb and prides himself on his veggie gardening skills, so he attacked the garden, re aligned the beds and bought in tons of horse manure and compost to give the beds a nutrient lift.  The gardens have never looked so good !


once again here's a short pictorial review.

Thanks so much Steve, awesome work and we really appreciate it !