'D.I.Y.' Home improvement projects around the property Scroll down for the list of 'how to do' projects

Bit of a do up
The house had been badly neglected and nobody had been living in it for a number of months. The lawns were overgrown and the gardens filled with weeds. The hedges were patchy in places and overgrown in other places. Un-permitted structures were attached to the building.
Yep, a real do up. See some pictures.

Below is a list of the home improvement projects done around the property.
Click on a title to go to is a full description of that project with a step-by-step account.

How to make a concrete gate post A description of how to make a concrete gate post. In all, we made three 1800mm (6ft) high concrete posts: two to hang the double gates and one on the side for the single walk-through gate. Concrete posts are a bit more labor-intensive than lumber posts but well worth the extra effort and the overall cost would probably not be too much more than using lumber posts.   More >>>

How to make a rope swing Sometimes you have to take time out from the do up work and make something for the kids. This rope swing hangs from a round horizontal post that is tied to a tree. A sort of imitation branch. Three types of seats were made for this swing.   More >>>

How to make a pipe and chain-link mesh fence We already had a hedge around the property boundary but still needed a fence to make a safe enclosure for the dog and grandkids. We opted for a chain-link mesh and pipe fence so that eventually the hedge would grow through the fence and make it almost invisible. This entailed cutting one side of the hedge away to enable the fence to be placed as close to the hedge trunks as possible.   More >>>

How to make a pair of lumber driveway gates A fair amount of thought had to go into the design of these gates. The driveway ran uphill, therefore the bottom of the gates had to raised be about 250mm (10") off the ground in closed position to enable the gates to open. More >>> This meant devising something that would stop kids and dog from scrambling under the gate. And that is exactly what we did. See a short video of how it works.

How to make a shed floor Usually we would make our own storage shed, but in this case time was of the essence and we came across a reasonably priced galvanized steel shed which we could use in the interim. We did however, still have to assemble the shed and make the floor. This article explains how the shed floor was made.   More >>>

How to replace an entry door The glass in the entry door was cracked and the rest of the door wasn't much chop so it was a case of out with the old and in with the new. This article explains how an entry door was replaced.   More >>>

How to make a concrete post cap This article explains how to make a concrete cap for a concrete post.   More >>>

How to make retaining steps This article explains how to incorporate a set of wide steps into a retaining wall. The steps are made out of 100mm x 100mm (4" x 4") treated posts.   More >>>