New Artwey Venue for 2012 !

Cat's new railway station platform porch!

Artwey 2010 - an international celebrity opens my porch!

so here we were on a rainy Saturday ... Elton John ready with those plush scissors I made ...



Elton is really Ed Hintze, and Cat has probably heckled him too many times at choir practice ... the neighbours are suitable shocked!



some one steps in, and finally Elton attacks the pink ribbon, for Steve's camera ...



It takes quite some time to cut through it ...



And its OPEN, after Eltons lovely speech ...



and the crowd rush in ....



to fondle my 'art for the hands' mats ...



say hello to molly the owl ...



choose some colourful and reasonable priced cards ...



and enjoy a little SPICE!

see for your self, here - http://www.artwey.co.uk/venue.php?venue_id=138

A Round Up .....

A lovely piece of hemming and creative sewing by Daisy, and sent with my sister's handmade Birthday cards ...



We pulled up one of our potatoes-for-schools plants and washed the new potatoes ...



The Fuzzy girls climbed in the Bin when my friend James and his family came to visit! i should have been brave enough to take a pic of James playing my mandolin ... this is only a garden bin though, full of stones dug our from out borders by Steve ...



Daisy pleased with her new 6-inch embroidery hoop and some felt shapes ...



And our porch, all finished now, re pleat with petite wicker chair, is a lovely place to sit, and to play...

House Work Round-up ....

another lot of scaffolding goes up, erected by men with no t-shirts ...



on the ground - one of our new solar panels ...



Ready - Duncan is in position to help lift the panels ...



Malcolm and Duncan Lift one of them - hey, be careful with that!



Up it goes - not work for a windy day I don't think ...



three panels in place ...



all nine panels cooking up some solar energy for us ...



Matty and Daisy watch some other men remove our old broken 1970's fence ...



and see the new fence go up ...



then the porch is finally completed when the floor is tiled ...



The scaffolding goes down, and our house smiles out from new windows, and my hawthorn tree looks very pretty in blossom ...



Thanks to Malcolm for the additional photography ... The Raggy Rat did not climb on the roof!

Ground Works .... Watching Cement Dry ....

Day 10 - some star glazing .... Ben at work ...



Day 11 - Once the rotting old arched door was removed, the space really started to open up ... don't get me wrong, it was lovely and I do feel a bit bad about ripping it out, but it would have needed a lot of TLC, and we are looking forward to the extra space!



i see my coat hooks came in very handy during the work ... here is Ashleigh ...



here we are inside the porch, lots of men on site today, including a sparky and lots of veiws of yellow underpants ... I didn't catch the sparky, and I have spared you the underpants!



here is Mark back again, to drink some tea and ... erm ... :-)



and Ashleigh again, doing some work ...



Day 12 - Ben's long day ...



Remember my poor old front door? This very cold winter had really upset it, and the duct tape was to keep out the cold wind. And this door had always been protected by the outer, porch door!



Old Door, no more ... I like how the girls are all shorter than the new arched window ... hmmm, memories of BBC's Playschool!



New door from the porch side ... we like red!



Day 14 - Daisy was pleased to see Jamie back, along with Mike, to lay some slabs and poor my new porch floor ...
So now, im just watching cement dry, and longing to fill the space with wellies!

Ground Works .... Windows all in, Porch being Erected ....

Day 6 ...
Matty and Daisy supervise Mark and Daniel in the dining room ...



during the bank holiday weekend I managed a few DIY tasks - one was painting some more of the dining room walls white ...



Its bin day, and not much room to squeeze past the van on the driveway ... my house its looking very smart, and my rooms are quieter ...



who needs to find things to do, when there are men-at-work to watch ...



I am loving my reflection, but only because it shows I have very clean windows!



this is not really a hat, its one of those shoe covers, designed to keep the mud from customers homes. The boys said that they have been told to wear these, instead of removing shoes, because their feet smell too much!



Day 9 ... Ben comes to erect the frame-and-window part of the porch ... the windows have been beautifully finished on the outside, even matching in some cement to make the lintels look pretty. SOME window companies would have applied more plastic ...



Look, he's throwing it up - it even has a door!



the bricks look nice too ... looks like Ben needs a Wessex FM mug next to the spirit level ...



coffee time ...

ground works ....

DAY 1 - say good bye to this lovely but old and rotting front door ...



daisy mary and matty make themselves giggle by saying, 'bye-bye chimney!'
Mummy and Louise made that collaged and stitched house number ...



our man Jamie cuts through concrete, crazy pathing and digs very hard clay to make the foundations for our new porch ...



finally, the hole is deep enough ... note that part of our old tiled step has already disappeared!



Daisy spends an hour in the window sill, watching Jamie mix cement and throw it in the L-shaped hole ...



DAY 2 - The Foremen show up and scrutinise the brick laying done by Mike ...



Builders' Tea, Strong, White-with-one ... in Wessex FM Mugs ...



Jamie digs a hole in the lawn for a new soak-away ...