Our new builder friend, who’ll be a neighbour just as soon as their own house build starts two doors down, is working with us on a few jobs we’ve been thinking about over these past months while we settle in to our new home. These new patio blocks will, eventually, when we collect enough shekels, be the footing for the cutest little kitchen greenhouse, just accessible from the back Door and well within reach of water and power.

It promises to be a little crown of delight to our garden, a kind of lovely feature that will make the whole outside living space sing. Southwestern Scotland isn’t half temperate rainforest for nothing: the rainfall here is a significant component of our lives, so our veranda project, along with the greenhouse and corner nook for the intermittent sunny days, should be a super space for the next part of our retired lives together.

In the process of digging out the space for the new Paving slabs, we exposed the old footings of the big shed that used to sit here. That required rather a lot of angle-grinding to remove the obstruction to level laying, but the finished job is a Neat one. Recognising that the area used to be roofed, the paving of that section doesn’t feel like it will create much of a water run-off burden, so we can rest easy that we’re not actually paving Paradise and putting up a parking lot. It had been a utilitarian space before.

So we’re building on a solid foundation of considered thought, through these next few months. Much better, we think, than rushing in and renovating in haste with our first ideas. Careful planning, looking at ideas back and forth, abandoning some plans, and incorporating new ones, over months of deliberation, should help to ensure that the end result is as neat, tidy, convenient and fit-for-purpose, as we desire it.

Meanwhile, the little chortle of joy over the work skills of our friend, and the neatness of the finish on this project, will be sufficient to whet our appetites for the next projects in the emerging scheme. 

Building projects can be such great fun, but there’s also the expectation of joy at the end of the work, when things come together and we can live the experience we have planned. At this time of our lives, of course, living, in and of itself, is the primary consideration, and each day brings its own rewards.