Living in fort knox!

Darling boyf and I had a very successful ‘diy day’ yesterday - and we even managed it without maiming or killing each other

A few weeks ago boyf decided that he would take his beloved 1961 karmann ghia off the road for some much-needed tlc and restoration work and since then I have been slightly concerned that our neighbours think they are living in chav hell… The driveway is littered with bits of rusty metal, all manner of tools and mechanic’y’ gizmos and basically the entire interior of the car being on its exterior… ie on the drive! Not a good look when we’ve spent the past three years doing the house up and generally trying to making it look as good as poss!

So an agreement was reached, rather than huff and sulk about the state of the driveway and rush darling boyf along to get the car done as soon as humanly possible, I suggested that we find a way to ‘hide’ the fact that the side of our house looked like a breakers yard. I said - very fairly I think - that if we could spend a weekend or so doing something to make me (and the neighbours) not cringe when looking up the drive, then I would not make one single comment about how long the car was taking to do, and therefore darling boyf could indulge in his restoration passion without fear of a whinging me

I decided that our best bet would be to put up 6 foot gates halfway down the drive and that in front of the gates would sit my lovely new car and behind would be the ‘work in progress’. This might sound bizarre but living in a 1930s house our driveway goes all the way down the side of the house and easily fits three cars down it. We’ve also got a 6 foot fence running the length of the drive so its actually quite practical to have gates half way down.

Anyway, as is my way I was less concerned about the practicalities of the venture than I was about the timescale! I happily ordered the fence panel, gate and posts to be delivered on saturday afternoon and was totally confident that. by the end of sunday, not only would the gates be ‘in situ’ but I would have also had time to paint the old fence and the new gates and get it all looking pretty! Although daunted by the task, darling boyf set to with a vengence and by 6pm yesterday evening it was all up. (I’ll have to do the painting another weekend!) And to give him his due, he’s made a bloody good job of it, we now have a brand new gate and fence panel to hide the ‘workshop’ behind.

The best bit about it for me though is the extra security and privicy it gives us. Whereas before the driveway - and therefore the garden, garage and back door - were all accessible to anyone passing, you can now only get half way down the drive before being stopped by a 6 foot fence and a padlocked gate (fort knox eat your heart out!). Much safer though, when you think that gardening at the bottom of the garden means being 97 foot away from an unlocked back door.

It also means that - and dare I say it… - my ‘issue’ with darling boyf’s dad’s insistence on using the back door when showing up unannounced, becomes a mute point. He’ll have to use the front door (and the doorbell) now as he won’t be able to get to the back Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with him coming round at all… I just like my privacy. And the time when boyf and I were upstairs getting ready to go out and we found his dad halfway up the stairs ’coz we hadn’t heard him knocking is taking family relations a little too far!