The crowning glory

Doesn’t your new home deserve the perfect setting?

PHEW, that’s it! The job is done, the builders have gone, all you can smell is new paint and new carpet. The house looks great; everyone who walks in goes ‘Wow!’ But what about outside? The chances are that right now your pride and glory, the home that you have saved for, worried over and about which you have had some sleepless nights, is standing in a sea of mud and stones, with the occasional lump of concrete here and there. It is time for the finishing, finishing touch: the landscaping. The backbone of the exterior design was decided long ago: the render, finish, stain, paint, roof tiles; the driveway and path materials were chosen, more or less, right at the start. Now comes the part where you take a builder’s site and work some magic, to bring the whole exterior together. A little bit of early planning goes a long way: the location of exterior power points and water taps should be agreed upon and sited early on, on the site and during the building work. Now is the time to put them to work. Once upon a time outdoor lighting was a light over the front and back doors and garage and if you had a couple of free standing lights you were being a bit posh. Those days are gone because the range of outdoor lighting is unbelievable today; downlights, lights to go under the eaves; what ever you can imagine it can be provided. Lighting, just like the colour of your front door handle and letter box, helps to create the first impression of your home, Despite what the gloom-mongers might say about the weather there is plenty of opportunity to entertain outdoors when living in the West Highlands and you can extend your evenings and the number of days if you are well equipped with outdoor lighting and heating. Yes, fire pits look great but how about some electric heaters on the wall above your decking or patio. That’s another great way to either extend your home outdoors or bring the outside inside: decking and patio areas are great additions to your home. These should be planned early on. A good idea is that once your house is up and the interior is being worked on, go outside and take photographs of the house from all sides, plus from the road. Take photographs looking out of the windows and once the stairs are in from all the upstairs windows. Print out plenty of A4 copies and set to work doodling! Forget about those colouring-in books for grown-ups this is far more therapeutic. Draw your dream garden. If you plan to have raised beds your builder will probably install these as the work comes to a close. What type of soil do you have? Will you need topsoil? A quick look at neighbouring established gardens will tell you what plants will thrive. Ask family and friends to start dividing plants or taking cuttings for you and if you have a friend who is self-building a big bag of bulbs makes a great gift; every spring as their lawn fills with snowdrops they will think of you!