Day six

Day six has been long but triumphant ,first the skylight challenge got underway , we rebuilt the frame , sorted the waterproofing etc , then between Brian , Sophie and I we got it onto the roof to sort out the drainage. We even got a test run , because later on we had a down pour ! It works woohoo 

Next job more leveling boo we hate that job, we unloaded the plants from the action and gave them a big water , Brian did some digging , at about 6.30 we said good bye to Brian and Sophie and I set off to Coblands on the M25 , traffic was pretty bad and we arrived at about 8.30 pm . Alan showed us our plants and some were amazing , some not so good so we had a change around and a good look around the nursery and picked lots of lovely things , by this time it was about 10pm ooh my bed is calling me but we've got a one drive back yet and a plant list to write too ! Oh well early night tomorrow . 

Day 4,5 and day 5 breakfast

On Friday night at 8pm I set off from site to take the journey home , Sophie and Matt went home too in Sophie's car ,the journey wasn't too bad but I was tired , got home at 10 pm it was so nice to see my kids and catch up with them and what they have been up too . And see Brian again , he had a manic night in the shop so was tired too . Sat morning I woke up early and sorted some bit out and then headed to the plant auction , I got loads of stuff and poor Brian had to do two trips with a car full , next I headed to Tamar nursery and picked up the box balls and various other bits too. I even got to spend some time with my daughter . At 5pm we all went to work (pizza shop) with the intention that I would come home when cover arrived ) but it was so busy I ended staying all night . I was ok though energy wise . Sunday was a different story full of hard work and stress for both Brian and myself sorting all the bits out we would need for the rest of the build , we sorted the guttering system and plants , more trips for Brian to borrow David and SAMs van thank you guys for your help yet again :-) it took all day rushing about , and then we were back on the road at 6pm . I was so relieved when I got back on site , I hadn't realized how anxious I had been about not being on site over the weekend , it all looked fine . We headed to our new bolt hole which is a lovely really nice , spacious and clean . We had a good night sleep and just had our breakfast and now were off to site . 

Day three with the giggles

We got the house cleaned up and said goodbye to Richmond . As next week were staying somewhere else. We're all feeling tired and I think we deal with that quite differently Matt was a bit quiet , but Sophie and I had that see the funny side of everything tired , and just kept laughing at everything , we had put a liner on the roof to protect from rain until it gets water tight . There was a puddle to to get rid of the water Matt cut two holes to drain which looked funny we were holding buckets to catch the water , this is no ordinary build process , then Matt took the pipes that were holding the liner down and passed them to me , the first one had water in , and as he passed the second it was aim straight at my face I knew what was coming , a face full of water , giggles again , everything had a comedy angle,even an apple break , I think we descended into mild hysterics. We got the planters and bench leveled    And fixed on the right hand side ,the roof polycarbonate clear sheet turned up , it's too big and now we have to figure out what to do with it . Matt started working on that while Sophie and I leveled the second grid area . The roof drainage took ages to sort and we didn't seem to have the right things , it was getting a bit tedious for all of us and we didn't feel like much was getting achieved, but it was , it s just complicated , I'm starting to regret having a skylight . At 7.30pm we called it a day and began the journey home to Peterboro , I got back at 10pm tired but really happy to see my Kids, Brian, the dog and the cats .

Day two

I was tempted not to write about day two , because it was hard but I think I should a little bit. We knew we wanted to get some bits from wickes , so once on site Brian and I went to find it , we'll it took blooming ages , I had a rough idea where one was , but as we left the show site Brian asked the man and he gave us directions to another one , and so the wild goose chase began ! Then we tried the sat nav and that took us to a random destination , then Brian spilt a can of coke all down himself, and the van started playing up too! Argh 

I was getting a bit annoyed at all the time we were wasting , but we ended up near to where I had seen a wickes so we found it on goggle maps and we were one street away , hallelujah . 

We got back to site and dad , Sophie and Matt had done loads which was great , we worked on laying out the metal grids for the flooring , which took a few goes to get right , digging , turf stripping , floor leveling , all time consuming but important jobs  . Then Sophie had to leave to go to an awards evening ( her dad and the green backyard have been put on the independents Happy list , how cool is that ) 

I was feeling a bit down about how everything seemed to take the long way round, added to that discussions and complications about the oil drum feature wall , and everyone feeling very tired , plus were doing long days , I felt a bit tearful , a magic hug from dad seemed to make it all better . In the evening it started to rain and was time for Brian and dad to return home to sunny Peterborough , I'm gonna miss them massively on the build  , but dads got a holiday to get to ! And the kids and pizza shop won't look after themselves . 

The journey back to our little Richmond house was the best so far , Matt's phone took us on a duel carriage way that got us there much quicker , then in the evening I went to see some family in Kingston and had a great catch up and supper , thanks Liz , Annabella and Matthew ( and kids ) 

The end of day one

We had a good night sleep in the house were staying in , and woke up ready for a day we had no idea how would transpire . Would it go well ? Would there be problems ? Would the jigsaw pieces fit ? Etc.  It took quite a while to get to site ,traffic was not good but I think it gave me time in the car to think things through , calm my nerves and a bit of positive thinking does wonders to help instill some confidence. When we arrived we marked out the places for the pavilion and started digging the  holes , when dad and Chris arrived we discovered they were not quite right so we had a bit of messing about getting things right from the start , the posts went up great , the back and side wall were more tricky but we got there in the end ! Next we put the plasma panel in phew it all fitted . They were the bits I was worried about .Pavilion  Decking floor is nearly finished . All in all its been a productive day , everyone has worked really hard and we've got on too ,(we were still smiling and laughing at the end of the day .

It's a mighty pretty day

It's day one of build , the sun is shining , the house we are staying in is lovely , all is good . Yesterday it took ages to load the truck and finish lots of bits off before we left then it rained and poured to add to the experience , but the journey went well and when we got on site we got to see what's happening

on site and check out our plot it looks tiny !! I know it's not thou. 

What a riveting day

Another eventful day , we got loads done , dad cut holes in the frame ( which took ages ) , painted the stage internal frame and finished building the table from a metal boat stand and scaffold boards , Brian sanded the table top down and also filled and sanded the last two benches , he had to buzz about in town buying bolts , nuts and a rivet gun , to join the oil drums , Cam was great today he helped with the drilling holes and riveting the drums , helping to move stuff and sort things out , he even made a delicious dinner of roast vegetables , jacket potatoes and chicken , well done Cam I'm really proud of you. Everyone seemed to come round today , Sue bought me a bottle of pink champs , I'm going to open that when we get the garden finished  ! And enjoy it , Christine and Brian came to see what we're up to , Emma came to see what needs doing with the kids and shop while we're away , there was a deluge of rain and Hail which ripped holes in the climbing vine grrr , that won't be used now. Gill , Amanda and Denise came to help in the evening  , gill made the cushions look awesome with the Metal logo using colours that reflect the painted metal in the  garden , Amanda cleaned lots of the drums and metal work down . Denise helped with some computer work and I drew out the last light box ,phew what a day !! 

Weekend of work

I've been waking up at 6am and out the door into the shed by 6.30am most days lately , anyone that knows me knows that's not really my style except when I'm getting ready for show time . There is literally so much still to get ready before we head off for the next part of our big adventure . Brian built two large benches for in the pavilion , one was quite tricky because it needed to fit around the yellow poles, but the boy did good , the water feature got finished off with a bit of welding by Andrew Goddard (well done Andy jinger boy  ) !! I cut some light boxes , I can't actually remember how many haha , I'm going a bit delirious , I think it was three , oh and I finished off a piece for an exhibition . Then my lovely mum came round, we sorted out the logistics of kids , cats and dog maintenance while Brian and I are away . Mum made two insect hotels and did some washing etc for me  , bless her x Sue Shields came this afternoon and helped me with some metal cutting and sorting out the grow zone , while Brian was busy sanding , then Brian decided to whack his leg on a sticky out thing and a big lump came out on his ankle ouch !!! So he was out of action . I had to put the forklift away , so my 10 year old daughter  explained to me how to drive it , ha , she's been on it with her dad and knows better than me . Then I finished the day with a bit more metal cutting before calling it a day . By the end of the day I looked like a filthy ragamuffin ( I hope that's a politically acceptable term and doesn't offend any ragamuffins out there ) goodnight time for bath and bed .

 

Pavilion sky light joy

On Thursday , Sue shields was over finishing off her pieces for an forthcoming exhibition , I was plasma cutting a light box for the show garden and dad was working on strengthening the pavilion roof framework and then he moved on to welding the plasma cut panel into the ceiling framework ,when I had finished cutting the panel the heat of the cutting had warped the metal and when it rested In  the frame it sagged in the middle , so we decided to weld it into the frame for support , the idea being that by welding it when flat it would hold its weight when suspended. It was a bit nerve wracking because we really didn't know if it would work . So when he had finished we all carried it over to the frame and set it in - it had worked perfectly and it felt like a celebration yay !!! There were hugs all round . 

Next I cut out a bird design on one of the oil drums , when finished it looked better on the inside , I might be turning this one into an art piece, oops might need to do another light box . 

Tea , water feature and light boxes oh and minor panic

This morning I met with Fiona from nene valley living mag to discuss the project for a feature . It was lovely to sit down and talk about it , it makes me realize how far we have come and what I've learned through the process. We had lots of things to collect and sort out . When we got home dad and I worked on the water feature , and table, I did a bit of work on one of the light boxes , Brian did some sanding on one of the benches , ripped down a piece of wood for the table , and then it was time to see if the water feature worked , we just stood back and enjoyed the moment , seeing it work properly was good ! Then it was time to get cleaned up and head to the pizza shop for a busy Friday night ( in case you didn't know our 'proper job ' is running the Fresh pizza co in Whittlsey , I really wasn't in the frame of mind for working and felt like I was running on empty, I just kept thinking of all the jobs left to do - insect hotel ,planted  ivy oil drums , finish table , build two more benches ... The list goes on , I'm sure we will get it all done by Tuesday somehow though . 

Plasma overload

Woohoo !! my most ambitious part of our show garden is coming together brilliantly. You've seen the progress on the structure in previous blog posts, well over the past few days I've been working on the icing of the cake - the sky light which is set into the centre of the pavilion roof , there will be a living roof around the edges of the roof, but the centre has a plasma cut panel , I had various ideas for the design , tree canopy , flowers , leaf patterns, birds , butterflies but I just couldn't decide on one , then as I thought about the garden and the ideas behind its inspiration , it's really about bringing nature in to the city , pollinating insects , birds , plants , flowers , growing food , so I created a design combining it all , the tree canopies are around the edges with birds in flight , then it moves to flowers and fruits and veg such as raspberries and beans then butterflies and moths and finally in the centre bees and honey comb . Local artist Sue  Shields has been coming over lately to work on her own pieces for an exhibition and helped me to understand how to overlap the drawings so  that they connect for cutting out the negative spaces . It's been a great challenge and I've learned masses through the process. The drawing out took an age but its all about the preparation , and I'm glad I took the Time . I started cutting the 2.5m x1.25m sheet of steel on Monday and finished it lunch time today (wed) and was literally jubilant ! Brian , dad and Sue all seemed to turn up at the same time and we put it in the frame , we still need to weld it in place , because its sagging in the middle a bit , but I layed underneath it and it looks awesome (I never say that about my work ) but it did with the sky behind it and the shadows it created on the ground

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