There is a new patent by Philips for a dimmer that works with the newer LED lights. They won a big court case in 2018. It was very interesting to me to read how they overcame the problem after many trials, which is why they were granted the patent.
I hate the flickering, too!
This looks really cool! I like the metal look. Also looks like Mr. Roads has a proper craft room of his own at his disposal!
I’ve ordered all the curtain rails (finally) and we hope to be able to get some DIY done this and next weekend. We want to put up all the curtains in the house and fix the last little bits of wallpaper here and there. We were on a roll but then life happened, we had a good reason one weekend to not get anything done, then suddenly we didn’t do anything the next weekend, etc. I’m sure that’s a familiar story for a lot of people.
My next priority is our yard. The builders tore it up. We’ve decided to make some changes compared to what we used to have and we hope to be able to do it low-budget. The main path through was gravel and we’re changing that. Right now all the gravel is just a big heap but we’ll be re-using it elsewhere.
Very nice @Immaculata! We have blinds and no curtains, but they get so dirty! At least you can wash curtains…and they look cool, too!
Initial stair fitting today:
I can’t wait to see the finished staircase!
We once lived in a rental fitted with metal blinds, I can see why that seemed like a good idea to our landlord but cleaning them was a disaster.
It’s the side wall of our neighbour’s extension. When we moved here 9 years ago we thought it was going to collapse any minute but it’s sturdier than it looks.
We’re thinking of ways to cover it up, preferably cheap and maintenance-free. We were thinking of using the leftover timber siding from our own extension but it’s not enough. I’ve been looking at pictures of garden follies and proposed to go all out with stone veneer siding to make it look like a castle tower but Mr. Imma wasn’t convinced 
Lattice & let that ivy climb to cover it entirely. It’s an inexpensive non-permanent solution. Or a mural for the illusion of additional space, that could be quite lovely. Ooh, and some solar twinkle lights!
We have ivy all along the chain link fences and it’s great - easy to maintain, impossible to kill, green all year long. We have a small square backyard with walls or fences on all sides and the ivy makes it feel less like a prison courtyard.
I cut it away now because it was everywhere, and we’re moving the gravel. This is right outside our back door and I’m tired of all the gravel that ends up in the house. As this is the view from the house I’d like it to be pretty. Letting the ivy grow back is not a bad idea but it needs something more. Maybe indeed solar twinkle lights! Or potted plants. The surface is difficult to paint on, we tried and so did the previous owners.
I was thinking mural as well. What makes it difficult to paint on? Does the paint not adhere properly? I haven’t done any outdoor painting but maybe it needs a specific primer?
Do you have more of those wooden skids?
A painting on canvas could be hung up there. Something that would look interesting as it weathered. Or painted wood
A nature scene or something more abstract, grungy, colourful.
Paving stones instead of gravel? You can often find them for free when people change their yard or have some left over from a job.
I love how this looks
If you’re setting up a little table & chairs or bench seating in that area it could be make flat enough to be a stable surface for that.
Can you tell I’m excited about outdoor spaces? lol
You could still put up lattice and then hang potted plants from it…fairly inexpensive, plus, you can change out the plants to suit your taste…I have grown herbs on a fence like this
So, it sounds like you’re able to do what you want to your neighbor’s structure’s surface, so that’s at least a nice starting point. I mean, if it simply wasn’t that color it would go a long way to making it less obtrusive. And a more solid paint job, would help a lot, too. Is there another kind of climbing plant that would feel better? I imagine a long planter box at the base with a pretty trellis and something growing up that - even if it was not evergreen, if the background was a nicer color and a painted better and the trellis was pretty is could still look quite nice.
Probably clincker bricks. I had to look up what they’re called in English and Wikipedia says they’re rare. Well, not here. We have a pile of them and you can get them for free everywhere. I kept a bucket full of broken tiles (both from the old and the new house) and I want to make some mosaic tiles, too. That’s a project for the summer. We have a couple of those pallets that I salvaged.
We don’t really sit outside for longer periods, we walk through the yard to go to the shed, in the morning I’ll go outside to look at the veggies and flowers while drinking coffee, I try to dry laundry outside. But I get annoyed in summer. Most of my neighbours are smokers, others grill all the time or play bad music.
@photojenn I don’t know what the previous owner tried but I used special primer for concrete and the paint didn’t stick properly. Gaps in the concrete have been filled with something else, maybe cement? The top bit is some sort of veneered plywood, the veneer is peeling off.
@TheMistressT The neighbour refuses to discuss it with us, and technically this side is on our property - the wall is all that remains of an old concrete fence exactly on the property line. The plywood is in bad condition, much worse than the concrete fence.
Maybe a planter box and trellis is a sensible solution because I could just put it in front of the wall instead of attaching it.
That’s a real bummer about the neighbors’ activites kind of ruining your backyard for you. 
We have some terrible neighbors who are super loud sometimes, but at least they’re far enough away and on the opposite side of the house of where we would spend most of our time outside that we can decide to ignore them - kind of. At least we can’t usually smell what they’re up to!
That’s what happens when you live in a terraced house. I’m sure I annoy them too I don’t mind normal living sounds that much thankfully. I feel much more couped up outdoors than indoors even though I can hear my neighbours there, too.
I’ve kept an eye on listings in rural areas for years, but realistically, unless we win the lottery, that’s not going to happen. Plus rurally people burn wood and keep livestock, those smell, too.
Stencils - spray paint??
The dining room is coming along. My husband spent last weekend doing prep work on the walls. Filling the million holes the previous owner made in the baseboards, and repairing shattered trim on the doorframe. Then this weekend he spent Saturday painting the crown molding, chair rails, baseboards, window, and doorframes. And on Sunday he did the trim panels on the lower walls, because they aren’t going to be the same color as the rest of the trim.
Ooh, that looks nice.
