Day 998: B'day DIY

Yes. Long time, no post. No excuses really .. well some excuses. First, there are lots of posts, I just haven't posted them. Second, the weather in the UK has been fantastic - best I've seen it in 11 years which makes it hard to work all day inside. I've actually done quite a bit on the garden and some exciting things like painting the walls - and if there is anything less exciting than watching paint dry, it's somebody blogging about watching paint dry. I've decided to spare everyone that.

So today was my birthday. I was going to do some work on the house for a change, but Caitlin informed me that I absolutely cannot do any work on my birthday. Bless her. 

I however did manage to sneak out in the morning and run some errands. A big trip to ScrewFix (actually 2 but that's another story) and B&Q to pick up lots of supplies for the work ahead. The house is getting filled with building supplies so you know something is up.

So in the spirit of not working, we had a fun assembly challenge putting together a picnic table. And I had helpers. Now that the big Ivy tower in our garden was felled, it left lots of space for tables and things. And our little 2 seater was looking pretty sad. All this nice BBQ weather and we didn't have proper seating to really appreciate it.

That's changed now. 

To start off though, a bit of a gripe. The picnic table was un-assembled which is fine. We purchased it from B&Q as Michelle and Stu bought one last year and we liked it - and it was reasonably cheap. What irks me is that B&Q don't have this for delivery - you need to run out there an pick it up yourself. It's big, bulky and heavy (38kg) meaning it's a proper pain to get home. I would gladly pay £30 for this to be delivered - wake up B&Q!

Now that I've got that off my chest. On to the assembly. Picnic tables are pretty basic. The instruction didn't have or need much English. First step was to lay out everything on the grass to get all the pieces correct.

The 'A's were pretty quick to put together. I put the sockets on the wrong part (not reading instructions) but I only have myself to blame. Now for the challenging part, putting the 2 'A's together. This was a team sport as you can see. 

With the frame together, it was time to screw down the table top and seats. Caitlin and Ash had some fun with the power tools. 

And the final touches. They actually did screw in the boards - this wasn't completely staged.

So there you have it, a long overdue post, a birthday, a non-work/fun day and some happy kids. We celebrated the picnic table challenge by having a picnic lunch and some presents - one of them being a ScrewFix gift card :)

And, yes the grass is shades of yellow and brown right now. We haven't had any rain since June. But hopefully the grass gets well watered when we're in Canada :)