Storm Bella should be rolling across the UK today. It might already have struck land but, looking at the Met Office website, it is going to be later this evening before it makes itself known around Loughborough, bringing high winds and heavy rains. We should be ready though. Today’s DIY task was fitting guttering to the shed. I purchased the pieces a few weeks ago but today was the first conjunction of available time, dry weather and an impending storm to provide the opportunity to get it in place.

As with most DIY tasks, it wasn’t entirely straightforward. For example, the mounting brackets needed to be held about 2cm away from the face of the shed to position the gutter underneath the point the roof drips. Indeed, that was another reason for the delay in proceeding, as I had to identify some wood (planks taken from an old pallet and denailed) to fill the space. Further challenges arose, such as the section behind the downpipe where I realised I needed further padding or working out how to smooth the cut sections of plastic guttering (I used a small candle although, reflecting on the process, sandpaper would probably have worked as well and quicker).

There is more work to do to get a full system of water butts hooked up to harvest all the rain water we’re likely to collect but, for now, I’m ready for the storm to come and test my work.