18.
Tesco coming soon.
We
are back after a really enjoyable Christmas break. We have recharged our batteries and full of
vitality to return to the building site.
We
have taken on the completion of the block work ourselves, and have made good
headway. We have completed all blockwork
for the main house, except for a small strip under the main dining room window
which we will complete this weekend.
The blockwork makes it easier to see the shape of the house as areas are more visibly defined.
This corner room (the other side of the column marked 13) will be the snug. Small, enclosed, and inward looking |
Having completed this stage in the main house leaves 'just' the stepped retaining wall of the studio to complete. This is a fairly mammoth task. One person mixes the concrete, another barrows it to the base of the wall. The concrete is then transferred to a bucket (half filled only) and lifted up on to the staging, for a third person to pour it in between the two faces of blockwork, filling the cavity where the steel mesh is. Quite a slow and heavy process as we can only fill two or three courses at a time. We are now up to the last two sections. The higher it gets the tougher it becomes. We have decided to use the pump for the last section (a good back saving devise) as it will be coming to the site with the ready mixed concrete lorry when we lay the slab in a week’s time.
Fred, our local hero has found us a labourer to help with this last stage. By the end of this coming week we hope to have the blockwork behind us.
This is what we have achieved this week - thanks to Max.
Two amusing things have happened. With all the rain it was a battle to keep everything dry. Unfortunately the file with all the key drawings of how to build the blockwork, all colour coded for ease of explanation, got left out as everyone dashed for cover when the rains came down.
Here they are drying out in the caravan with the heating turned up high. The whole caravan was converted into a drying room for 3 hours. All was OK |
This colour key represented a different structure of a wall. It was no mean feat to keep track of exactly what one should be doing where. |
And this was a particular junction that very nearly defeated us. But what we have built, actually does look like this. Except for the colour.
The second event: We returned from a shopping trip to find a notice on one of the fences.
We were fairly certain that it was a joker in the village, so we left it up.
It does look a bit like Tesco at the moment but it will soften once the cladding is on.
The best laugh was when some young riders came by, and I heard one of them say to the other,
"Oh wow, we going to have a Tesco soon! How brill is that!"
What a disappointment it's going to be for them.
At a New Year's Day village lunch party given by Fred and his wife we discovered who the culprit was. He is the butterfly expert in the village with whom we have had several conversations, and he is renowned for his pranks.. He couldn't resist mentioning the Tesco notice as soon as he saw us. We sussed him out - and he owned up.
Everyone who stops by enjoys the joke too, we believe!
I think it will remain there.
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H A P P Y N E W Y E A R TO E V E R Y O N E
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