KENNELWORTH ....THE MAKING OF

Kennelworth? I can hear the query, is that some house belonging to the National Trust? Have they been out for the day?

Well there is a Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire but we have not yet paid it a visit and we have not even left our property to see this Kennelworth ! In fact now I think about it we have been to Kenilworth Castle.

So let me fill you all in on what we've been up to, this is photo heavy so that you can see how Kennelworth was achieved.

Are you sitting comfortably? yes? good I will begin.......

In the week we were clearing up the garden and Patio now that spring's finally sprung! We had put the Acers in pots and arranged them in one part of our patio  and while doing this I spotted something that was never really used and had just been put in a corner and forgotten about.
That day I looked at it with my Sasha eyes!!! You know the ones, we all have them when we see something we think may or may not be just the right size for our Sasha's!
Sometimes we can be totally wrong and bring home something way too big or too small but sometime we come across a gem!
And this is what happened when I looked at this unused and unloved item, I thought that would fit a Sasha and I know exact what it can become!

So here is the first of many photo's.....the item to take my eye was......

Yes the old dog kennel ! We bought this a good few years back for our dogs, who took one look and said " That's a bit small for all of us, lets stay in the house!" and apart from going in on the odd occasion to sniff and check no one else had had the cheek to move in , they totally ignored it!
Now and then we would see one of the cats curled up in the doorway but very rarely did it have any use.So it had lived tucked away in a corner, slowly decaying.
Now yes it was somewhat bigger than I needed for my idea and this is where the lovely DH Paul comes in, he spent yesterday cutting it up and remaking it into a Sasha usable item .

Here is a photo showing the rot on the side that was open to the elements, the roofing felt split and the wood rotted.

But the bottom was in very good condition although covered in rubbish.

So Paul set about taking it apart.

It had originally come as a flat pack, so was fairly easy to take apart except one rail that had to be prised off.

Here we have left just the back wall and the floor. The floor was going to be cut down to half the size but then Paul had an idea which I agreed with, so only a small area of floor was reduced.

The kennel was two foot deep, so Paul cut one side wall in half to bring the size down to just one foot. Here he has placed the two cut halves against the back panel.

Here he is fixing the side back in place. It was around this time that Paul said I should call it Kennelworth !
I thought it was a great idea! So kennelworth it became.
Have you worked out what he is making me yet? Yes ? Well don't shout it out maybe some are still not sure!

A client supervisor can only interfere so much, so I took myself off down the garden to see where we could place Kennelworth once it's finished. This is my first choice, I know it does not look wide enough but on the left are ground elder weeds which need to be pulled up and the space should be wide enough, I'll take the tape measure up there later and double check.

Just so you can place it in the garden, it's just down here on the right at the end of this border and before the stone circle.

Now lets get back to Paul and Kennelworth.

Now he is refitting the front to the two new shortened side walls.

A view of inside, Paul coated the whole thing inside and out in clear five year preservative to help keep it from rotting any more.At this point I said it would be good to have a shelf/ worktop inside.

So an off cut of skirting board was found and cut down tight enough to wedge between the walls.
Now those who make things will know that something it changes and evolves in the making and so it was with this. Paul had said about putting the roof on and letting it come out to cover the front board forming a small veranda. I , the client, had agreed with this improvement but when we got to this stage , we did not have any roofing felt and the piece on the Kennel roof was too small and old to reuse. So when Paul went off to see if we had any, he returned not with felt but two large slate tiles!
So in order not to have to add more work, the veranda idea was scrapped in favour of a lovely slate roof.

Here you can see one slate in place , we left it long to help keep the rain off the sides.

Both slates now on and the original ridge back in place which is slightly on the tilt but nothing we can do about that.You can see the shelf on the back wall.Well we now needed to put some coloured stain on but not having anything suitable it meant a trip to the local Wickes and the first cost involved. Of course I had wanted a nice pale green but no small tins available in that colour so finally we settled on a Cornflower blue.

Now there was just one more thing! It needed a pair of doors. The kennel had not had any doors so Paul went off to find something to make the doors from....

He found some old fence rails, which he used to make the doors from while I gave Kennelworth it's first coat of cornflower blue stain.

Two doors! Ready to be stained and fixed!

I could not believe how perfect the rails looked as doors.

Again Paul went looking to see if we had any other stain colour to use as a contrast and he found the lavender stain we used on our covered garden benches.Here you can see the doors getting a first coat.

The doors now on and open to give a view of inside.

And closed with the black hinges we got when we bought the stain.Now it all just needs a second coat and the floor stained, a little touch here and there. Then it can be put in place and it will be finished.

We had reached this point by last night, so today we just needed to finish off..

Well it's now completely finished and in place! Did you work out what it is? I am sure you did, so lets see the result of all my..I mean Paul's hard work..

KENNELWORTH the potting shed for the twins.

Yes Paul said all shed's have a name so the twins is called Kennelworth and I am sure you have all worked out why!.

Violet and Sapphire who have borrowed some of their brothers denim dungarees while they wait for their floral ones!Are very excited about their new shed. Shall we look inside? Are you sure? not fed up with all these photos? No! OK

step aside for the moment girls.....

You can see the girls have already started to add their gardening tools etc.

Violet shows you how roomy it is inside.

This is a photo of the toy tool set I found on ebay last year and managed to win.

Here are some of them on some nails Paul  in for me.The rest are on the work bench or in the yellow pail.

You can see that both Sapphire and Violet can fit in comfortably, so they can potter side by side.

Then at the end of the day , when the twins are ready to return back to the house.

Everything can be put away and the doors closed until next time.

and it fits in very nicely in that spot in the garden.


So there you have it ! A Sasha sized potting shed made from an old unused dog kennel with a bit of imagination and a lovely helpful husband and no he's not thinking of filing for divorce so he can have a rest on a Sunday... well at least I don't think so ? He's still got my Chat n Snap things to make!!!!



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