First, the before shot of the view down the side, from the back of the house to the front ...
... and after with the new gate:
Before, from the front of the house...
... and after with the new gate:
Okay, now the back bit. When we first moved in there were a couple of gates halfway through the back of our property (the blue-barked bit you see through the gates is ours too):
Grant removed the gates, in preparation for the contractors - this is pretty much the view I have from the kitchen window - OH, also note the bed we created on the right for our veges next summer (it's as wide as we could make it due to concrete):
Here is a before (or rather, during) shot taken from the boys' bedroom window:
And after - how fab is that!?! The space enclosed is about the size of a single garage.
Facing our property from the alleyway, before:
And after:
The back bit, before:
After:
We plan on painting the brick wall stark white, creating beds around the sides to plant our strawberries in, removing the small conifers and making a small lawn under the sycamore tree for a nice spot to relax in summer (IF WE GET ONE THIS YEAR!)
Another before shot from the alley behind our property:
And after:
I can't recommend the contractors enough. They were respectable, polite, neat, reliable, thorough and did excellent work. It was Eddie Cairns and his partner, from EC Landscapes, telephone (01253) 739984.
I gotta tell ya, DIYing has its rewards but I'm totally digging this pay-someone-else-to-do-the-hard-work thing. It's SO worth it.
