Week 10

Friday

Wandering back from the house over the train bridge, Gareth spotted a lock on the railing. It’s just as atmospheric as the Pont des Arts…. apart from the dog poo.

will this be the first of many?

from the back door through to the lamp-post

Game of Stones

The guys are finishing off the edges which requires a lot of cutting and mucking in. They’ll be doing this into next week too. Then the edges will be filled in with some of the earth that’s piled up in the back by the current garage. Apparently the brick layers will like their work areas level with no big dips to fall into or step over, and they arrive next week. The bricks are delivered Wednesday, and that will be a big day logistically for a few reasons. We’ve decided to dig the soak-away in the back garden rather than plumb it through the house. This is for the rainwater runoff from the back of the house and the original plan–it’s not going to be too big, only 3m cubed, but it’s landlocked on the other other side of the house. The alternative was to run it under the house and into the ditch, but we’d need a permit and some other permissions for that option as well as an £87 fee to the Council for the change. To get that all dug and sorted in the same week that the bricks arrive is a good puzzle for Nic. He’s thinking about forklift to ferry the bricks around the neighbours to the back of the garden. It’s going to be fiddly!

The garage is a total rock solid bomb shelter. It’s got an unbelievable amount of concrete in there, all because of next door’s conifers. An engineering marvel!  The contractor has recommended a concrete floor rather than a thin screed to avoid cracks. I’m not sure when the pour is scheduled, but there is a LOT of steel in there and it’s all ready to go.

Apparently all clients at this stage worry that their house is too small. Lee reckons that sticking a sofa on the blocks will show how big it is and will alleviate all concerns. It’s jolly big enough–we have to remember that our main constraint is budget, so we were never going to go all gargantuan, and it’s about the same size as the previous house. The flip side of a normal, non-huge house is that the garden remains an ok size.

We’re about to choose the hanging tiles. And of course we’re still dithering on the mortar colour.

hanging tile shortlist

Thursday

Crane Day!

morning

early afternoon

Wednesday

tomorrow’s project arrived

Tuesday

The walk over was very murky tonight. Thunder booming softly from far away.

looking north, up the line

Today ten tons of hardcore arrived and it was spread out around the garage. More will be dropped on the earth before the beams go down. Lee and the guys added more concrete and reinforcements to the garage and set up the foul drains.

behold the kitchen drain

WC drain

The test panel is drying out. Now we get to choose tiles! Which is your favourite?

which goes best?

Looking forward to concrete beams for the ground floor arriving tomorrow with any luck, and crane to lay it all on Thursday.

Monday

Week double-digits. Coming out of the ground bit by bit.