Making progress

Yesterday, I made major progress in bringing order to the garden and outbuildings of my new home. In less than an hour, Jan with his van, assisted by a friend, removed a whole load of items left behind by the previous elderly owners, all of which were of no use to me. I hope the ‘before and after’ photographs which follow, will illustrate the progress that has been made.

Circular saw with ‘rain cover’ © Ricky Yates

Just under two weeks after moving to my new home in Stará Oleška, I wrote a post entitled, ‘Plenty to keep me occupied‘. In that post, I pointed out this ancient electrically driven circular saw for cutting logs, sitting in the middle of the back garden and wondered how on earth I would get it removed. Well yesterday, Jan using his electric metal cutter, removed the heavy engine from one side of the contraption. Then he and his colleague, aided by a trolley, were able to wheel the two parts out of the garden and into their van.

Where the ancient circular saw once stood © Ricky Yates

Here is where it once stood – now just an area of long grass and several centimetres of sawdust 😉

Junk © Ricky Yates

In that same post was this photograph of what I call my wood shed, showing a whole variety of ‘interesting’ items, stuffed into one end of the shed.

The wood shed minus junk © Ricky Yates

As this photograph shows, these ‘interesting’ items are now gone. There is still plenty of sorting out to do, but what is left is wood in some shape or form. Some pieces will be useful for future construction projects such as forming the framework for a concrete path. The rest will eventually be sawn up and become fuel for the wood burning stove which will be my main source of heating in the forthcoming winter.

Lean-to storage unit in May 2017 © Ricky Yates

What I didn’t illustrate in that previous post was the half completed lean-to storage unit on one side of the house. This is what it looked like back then.

Lean-to storage unit minus junk © Ricky Yates

This is what it looks like now. Once I’ve removed some remaining loose timber into the wood shed, then I plan to lay a proper concrete floor. After that, I hope to be able to hang the door that is already sitting there, propped up on one side, and create a dry and secure home for my mower and garden tools.

For his labours, I paid Jan CZK 1000, just under £35.00 at current exchange rates. Whilst I’m sure he will be able to re-sell some of the bits and pieces, I still felt I got very good value for money.