I cannot believe it’s already March. It has been a year since our last big project, the extension, and now it is time again to embrace another one. This will be our last BIG make-over for now at least. Obviously there will be bits and bobs like changing the windows and the front door, but I’m hoping it won’t be as intrusive as our kitchen renovation or the new extension building works.
At the moment our garden and driveway are looking like a building site. The building works started over a week ago and we have at least another 2 weeks ahead of this craziness before it’s all finished. I’m so excited though. Having a landscaped garden and a brand new driveway will make a huge difference to our house and obviously increase the value too.
We decided to hire Plantazia Landscapers to redesign our garden and install the new driveway. A friend of mine recommended them to me and after a bit research and viewing their previous projects, we decided to go with them. It made a lot of sense to do these two jobs together because a) we can use the same company and b) the more business you give them, the better the discount.
I am more excited about gaining a landscaped garden than the driveway I have to admit! I spend a lot of time in the garden during the summer and it’s all you see when you are sitting in the lounge. I’m sure the kids will love it too. We tried to do some gardening ourselves but it was too much work and it really felt like a forest at times with all the weeds. In other words, I hated it. This time I want to make it nice and neat. I’m not into gardening and have a busy life with two children so the less maintenance, the better. We might even get a gardener at some point to keep it in check every few weeks but we’ll wait and see how much maintenance it is first.
Oh, did I mention we will be installing a timber decking in the garden? I am over the moon excited about it. I used to have one in a rented property and I have missed the soft feeling of wood under my feet when walking on it. Yes it can be tricky to keep clean but oh boy it is so worth it. I know you might think that they don’t last but if it’s weather protected you should get about 15 years out of it. That’s good enough for me. Of course new timber decking means new garden furniture <yay>. This is the part that is making me spend hours on pinterest looking for ideas for garden dinner parties. How much fun, right?
Have a look at my Pinterest Board for some inspiration!
I am also looking forward to getting a bigger and nicer driveway of course. We decided to go for block paving supplied by Marshalls. So should you go crazy on the driveway or stick to what your neighbour has done? There are definitely some mixed opinions on this (we are in a semi-detached after all) but I think everyone should go for whatever they fancy with some consideration to the location and type of property you own. Having said that I have seen some gorgeous Victorian houses with contemporary style driveways that work very well so it definitely can be done.
I still think a driveway is something that you should spent some time and money on. It’s often the only thing people see and it represents your home to the outside world. It will add a lot of value to your house as well. We might live in a 1930s house but the décor is definitely more contemporary with all the monochrome details. I really wanted our driveway to reflect this too and we decided to go for two contrasting colours (light grey and dark grey which is almost black). The driveway will be light grey in the middle with dark boarders. I actually got to pick the colours last week which was very exciting!
So far we have been very happy with our landscapers. Rob, who leads the team, is on site daily to make sure that everything is running smoothly. His staff are very hard working and professional and have been doing this for 15 years. Rob has quite a strong vision and I have had to trust him on few ideas which I wouldn’t have considered doing before. It’s a bit nerve wrecking as I like to be ‘in charge’ but I can start to see now how it’s all going to look like and I really hope it will exceed our expectations.
It’s all very exciting at the moment and the noise hasn’t been that bad to be honest. The diggers went after day 3 so that’s a good sign and our 4 month old baby slept through all the noise on the loudest day (day 3) which was a miracle to say least. I’m just hoping that everything will go according to plan but so far it’s looking better than I would have ever imagined. I’ll keep you posted!
