We’ve been at the new house for a whole month now and we’ve been busy little bees. Right now we’ve been working on small jobs and been contacting companies to help with the larger jobs that we can’t manage like extending the house, building a shed, levelling the garden, ripping out the hedges and fencing the entire plot. However, the main focus has been getting the workshop up and running so we can open the business back up and I’m pleased to say that the online shop is now open! We have limited metalwork in stock as well as some reclaimed/new pieces with plans to list the vintage items later this month.
I thought I would do a little blog post all about the workshop and show you what we’ve been up too so you can follow the progress. The main plan is to split the workshop into two sections, the actual workshop part and then the shop area at the back where we will store all the stock and have an office. A large sliding door is currently on the end of the workshop but we’ll be moving this halfway up to the longer side which will make it easier for us to load stock for the garden shows. We’re also hoping to have a yard area to the side to store more stock which ultimately means that we will be able to open the shop to the public for both browsing and also collecting any orders.
The biggest job we’re waiting for is to concrete the main floor before we can start installing workbenches and equipment to make all the garden metalwork. Therefore we started by doing the smaller jobs; we pressure washed the inside, applied woodworm killer on the wooden beams, painted the steel beams with red oxide as well as painting the inside galvanised sheeting in the ‘shop’ area a nice light grey colour. We purchased pallet shelving for the small area that already had a concrete floor and made 2 trips down to our old storage units to collect some of our stock (we still have half down in Southampton which we’ll be collecting next week!) We also decided to paint the front of the workshop the same grey too as we thought it would blend in more with the skyline. We pulled down a large wooden shed which sat between the workshop and the house with plans to create a small back garden for the dogs so we’ll be planting some shrubs along the grey walls.
We’re hoping that the rest of the floor will be concreted within the next month and my Dad is currently making some large workbenches so he can crack on with making orders in the meantime. The electrician has been booked to put in some stronger lights and we’re also going to create a little photography room so we can photograph all the stock throughout the year. This room is very dark and dingy at the moment but believe me it’s going to look beautiful and be so very handy!
There’s a lot of work to do but with a little time and effort it’s going to look great! On top of getting the workshop ready we’ve also booked professionals to come and look at the house with plans to extend it. We’ve got landscapers coming to work on the garden, remove some hedging, break up some concreate slabs and hopefully level off the ground as it’s very uneven. Meanwhile I’ve also been busy planning the new kitchen garden, it’s taken a while but I think it’s ready to share with you this weekend!
