Monday 28th February - The first blocks

Drains were all dug and in place this week. We've also decided to have a timber floor rather than solid (building inspector insisted on a steel mesh, tied into the footings with a 9" base) or block and beam (more expensive).
I've started moving the kitchen into the dining room as a temporary set-up, but we need to make the changeover as quick as possible to ensure we always have a washing machine and dishwasher. Baby could be here any day now.
The blocks arrived but it's been slow going due to the weather. They can't lay them when it's sub-zero, so as soon as they arrived nothing happened. Due to this, the builders came in on Saturday and started !
Here's Tony making sure things are on the level.

Monday 21st February - footings done

After 2 days of additional digging, shuttering the sides of the footings and pouring concrete we're finally

done. The building inspector made us not only dig to a metre each side of the well, but step it up to about

2.5 metres deep for a further metre each way.






We've also decided to use Celcon blocks to build the walls. It's a thin joint system which doesn't use mortar, but an adhesive insted. Yay ! We're building out of lego !

The builders should be starting on the drain digging today.

Friday 15th February 2005 - Oh Well

Fuck it !

Yesterday, the builders found a well. So, after a whole 3 days of smooth work we've ground to a halt.
OK, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. I mean, it is a deep well, and could go even deeper (they haven't hit the bottom yet and they're down to 3 metres), but if it goes much further the engineer will design some steel to go over it. Then we just pour concrete over the top.
Still, it puts us back a day or two right at the beginning.



UPDATE : It looks like they've hit the bottom at just past 3 metres. If so, they'll have to dig around it for a metre or so (2 days) and then we can pour concrete. If not, the engineer will design some steels to put across it, dig around it even more and then pour concrete.