17th March 07
I did not think that one day I will be writing a Blog (Yuk, what a horrible word) on paving Kati's Cottage at Velence. I know I sound sad. We have spent many months (Kati has) looking at types of natural stone that can be used to beautify the garden. Currently, the garden has concrete in the front and the side. The back of the cottage has terricote tiles, which still look good. Here are a couple of photos showing the front and side.
Our intention is to remove the old concrete from the front and side and replace it with natural stone.
Back to the drawing board and the help of Microsoft Visio I managed to draw a sort of layout to enable us to cost the whole project. That day, it was a terrible Friday, it had been raining all day and it was cold. We went off to Csepel island in Budapest, I know it sounds exotic but really it is an industrial estate. I know the name well, as the famous Hungarian bicycles are manufactured there. I have a bike from Csepel (not made in China). Anyway, back to the story, after a few drives around the industry estate we gave up and as we could not find this place we decided to give the guy a call on the mobile. Ten minutes later he turned up, it was still pouring with rain. Back around the estate and there it was, we passed it a couple of times and thought it was a building site tip. We went in and there were all different stones in various shapes, sizes, colour and price. After some discussion, we made a decision to select a range of stones. The next question: will Stoneman have enough? Still wet, with dirty shoes and cold, the stones looking sad. I now know how I got this cold. I still have this awful cold in my nose, my head after two weeks of druging myself with soluble Paracetamol. There must be a lesson to learn somewhere. Anyway, a mad rush to get to the cottage 90 minutes later to remeasure the path. Yes, you guessed it we needed more stones. Will Stoneman have enough? It was still raining and I was cold. Six hours later, been to the toilet hands washed, we were in the warmth of IKEA (half way to Budapest) eating our Swedish meat balls. Aren't we a Marketing Man's dream?
Back home in Budapest, I redrew the layout with accurate dimensions. It was still raining, we took the dogs for the a walk. I think the dogs must have more sense then us, they decided to keep their private business short and come out of the rain. I know all you girls are going to say isn't that sweet. They have more sense than humans. Its still raining. Oh I almost forgot, here is the layout. Just to explain the drawing, the left side of the plan is the front of the house
.
