The project so far

My thinking behind my house is to make it as correct as possible, but with a bit of artistic flair, it's not a project to be rushed, and in the following photo's, you can see the exterior as it is now.

The first thing you will notice, the front steps are balanced on a tin of varnish,This is to show how the steps will look, I wanted wide steps to my front door. I am going to have a raised pavement which the steps will attach to. I have spent alot of time designing and then redesigning the street level. I now want to build a raised pavement with a courtyard area in front of my kitchen windows. I may put a herb garden with a bench there, but I will make that choice once the street front is finished.





You can also see my basement with a garden above. I cut
the hole for the double doors to the ballroom, the wall
should be bare, no windows just chimneys. My chimneys
are at the back of the house running through each floor
into the attic. I am half way through placing brick fronts
on the side wall. It's a hard job and I can only do a few rows at a time, if I try to do too many, the glue does not set fast enough and the weight of the bricks above make the lower bricks slide or my line of bricks do not stay straight. I find about 1 hour is enough time for brick work, with the cutting to size it's a long job.

My garden is more a courtyard, I have ideas for the planting, the greenhouse was given to me by a friend, I use it as a back drop but I am not sure if it will stay there, I think it's a bit to modern for my house. I have been planning to make a high wall there with a tree hanging over into the garden, I could then have an arbour and a bench there. I do like my water fountain and the garden bench. I want to have a hedge along the inside of the wooden railings, these I will paint to make them look like stone.

I have a hedgehog and a tortoise in my garden and will want birds, I have a good collection of birds in my other projects, all made by Peter Clark, who also make's the brick fronts from heavy card.