Stray Dog Strut

Just a quick update on the latest D.I.Y project. The base is practically finished – we’re just waiting on a few more beams to be delivered as we want to strengthen the already rock solid inner structure and put another beam along the front to bring it closer to the lawn edge.

It’s not perfect – the side angle shows off some of the squint beams more – but we’re satisfied that the outside frame is straight and some of it couldn’t be helped (posts being set already, wood bowing etc), but it’s not bad for a first (and possibly last!) attempt by a couple of amateurs.

All that remains is to cover it in the floorboards and tidy up the edges/add gravel boards underneath. My brother is also looking into getting a new back door as the UPVC one he has is expanding and melting in the heat! We’ll probably stop the floorboards at the door until the new one arrives as we want to run them right inside the doorstep inset to give it a nice finish. I suggested ballustrades at one point but he doesn’t want them at the moment. However they can always be added at a later date. He’s also going to rebuild the path at the side of the decking.

Here’s the latest pics:

P.S. It seems Team Blogger have fixed the picture posting bug in I.E. – thank you!=)

Another D.I.Y project is underway. This time i’m helping my brother build some decking in his back garden. It’s going pretty good considering neither of us has ever done this before and the book we have is useless. A combination of web searches, tool store tips and ‘judging by eye’ have seen us this far.

It’s taken 3 days to get to where we are now. On the first day, saturday, we didn’t manage much as we had to go back to B&Q to change some parts. B&Q is like a big home & garden centre over here. The parts in question being joist hangers – metal cradles that hold an adjoining joist in place. In the end we basically dug our initial outer holes – they’re a foot deep each.

On day two we accomplished more. We had to redo some of our holes as they were too deep/not deep enough. We then cemented in the outside posts, about 11 of them I think, and left them to dry over night. The weather has been scorching here all weekend – the weather girl said 28 degress Celcius but the thermometer in the garden says 36 degrees? Needless to say it was thirsty work and we consumed alot of beer – not the best way to hydrate yourself!

I was back at work today but I went round tonight and we got the outer frame in place. We’ve spent alot of time measuring everything and I don’t think it could be any straighter (Note that the lawn has a squint edge so it would be a mistake to use that as a reference). We had alot of trouble with the screws down the left side as the heads got chewed up too easy by the drills we used (drills with screwdriver adaptors). In the end we managed and the frame is rock solid.

If my brother’s free tomorrow I’ll go round after work and we’ll put in the three cross beams and two support beams underneath. After that it’s just the floorboards to go on and a tidy up of the edges. We’re still considering a few options for making the deck more flush with the lawn – it’s set where it is due to the concrete at the base of the washing pole on the left and the hedge on the right.

If we get good weather and all goes well then possibly we could be done by this weekend, but we’re taking our time. It’s a big project and mistakes would be costly. It’s fun though – I like the problem solving, even if it does involve alot of arguing and cussing. That’s brother’s for you.

Needless to say i’m pretty tired and my neck is sore from some mild sunburn so i’ll have to love you and leave you for now.

Adios.

We have three foreign students staying with us. We regularly take in students who come over here to learn English. Usually it’s organised through an agency. It’s alot of fun and a good way to get to know about the world.

We have two 15 year olds – a Russian and a Spanish boy – and a 19 year old Italian boy. Well the two 15 year olds went out to a disco on tuesday while the Italian stayed in to watch the football – Italy vs Germany in the World Cup Semi-Final – Italy ended up winning 2-0 after an unmissible game of football. There were chips and feints, deep runs and superb ball control – it was a delight to watch.

It was fun to watch it with our student – obviously he was rooting for Italy – as he spent the 120 mins screaming at the t.v. in English and Italian. The effect was quite contagious – we ended up supporting Italy too. So it’s Italy vs France in the Final on sunday – personally I’m supporting France because I think Henry is cool and it’s Zidane’s last game so it would be nice to end on a high note. Italy play attractive football though. It should be good.

On wednesday night I met up with Fe and Soul to go bowling. It was Fe’s birthday the day before so that was the reason. I won 3 of the 4 games we played and I got about 5/6 strikes – 3 in one game, although not all at once – it was one of my best performances, lol. Afterwards we played pool – at some point or another we all potted the black but we grabbed it before it sank and played on. I was trying to teach Fe to play pool (and coaching her at bowling) but she potted a few on her own. Soul and I were pretty evenly matched – even though I made lots of mistakes!

For Fe’s birthday I decided to draw her a picture. This was a gamble as I suck at drawing imaginary things and only half-suck at drawing still-life. I didn’t tell anyone I was going to do it just incase it didn’t work out. I had the idea of drawing a comic strip. At the beginning it would show Fe working in the nursery (that’s what she does) and getting stressed with all the crying kids (I probably exaggerated their youth!) and then in the middle she would go crazy and finally at the end she would use the kids as bowling pins on our night out. Silly huh?lol

Well I thought it up on my way home from work and scribbled down a sketch when I got back. I then scanned it into my computer and opened it in Photoshop. I wanted to attempt to ‘ink’ the sketch – to go over the sketch lines to make it into line art – but as this was my first attempt at inking I had to review a few tutorials first. I’d used the pen tool in Illustrator back in college but I couldn’t get the pen tool in Photoshop to work for me, and I didn’t see the benefit of the paint brush for smooth lines.

I read lots of tutorials on monday night (yes, I only started this two nights before the night out!) and agood tutorial I found is here. Every tutorial was a little different but it wasn’t until this one that I made real progress.

I didn’t actually start inking until tuesday night due to the interruption generally caused by having visitors living with you, a full-time job and watching the football. In the end I used the paint brush – I learned where to find detailed brush settings in Photoshop and experiment with the different brushes – for alot of the sketch. I don’t have a tablet yet so I had to use my mouse, thankfully it’s an optical one so it was actually okay. I used the pen tool for the longer, smooth lines as recommended and learned a few shortcuts for using it effectively.

I stayed up until 3am working on the inking, only to crawl into bed and then get up at 6am to get ready for work and finish the inking. I wanted to shade the drawing, maybe keep it in a black and white style, but I didn’t have the time. It was already wednesday and I had to leave for work in about a half hour, lol. In the end I just coloured certain bits of it for effect. I should have played around with textures and gradients but I had to finish it quickly.

Anyway, Fe was suprised but she liked it, and Soul said he wouldn’t have the patience for it – he guessed that it had taken a long time even though it doesn’t look like it.

So here it is. Like I said, it doesn’t look like much but there’s alot of man-hours in there, lol. Below is the original (very messy) sketch. I’m happy with it because of the lines – not bad for a first attempt and a very rushed job.