Extension Part 14

On Friday Alan pegged out the walls and patio based on the plan I had given him, with just a couple of minor changes. Rather than a curved wall down to the new gates-to-be he broke it down into shorter straight sections with angles to roughly follow the road below - this is easier and therefore cheaper.

There has been another change at the back - my plan hadn't taken into account the different levels between the house and the side wall. So now we are having a path around the utility room with a tapering retaining wall on the other side of the path. There will still be a raised veggie patch at the back with steps up to it by the house, but instead of being fully contained by a retaining wall the ground will slope down, hopefully to ground level at around about the sunroom. The raised bed along the side wall is now going to be formed with railway sleepers.

Alan started to dig out the foundations for the walls yesterday. This was continued today up to almost where the main gates will be. Mark has started filling them with cement. We also had a big bonfire to get rid of the uncollected wood, trellis and a self-sown tree.

David from Metal Magic came around this morning at our request to speak to Alan re anything he needs to make life easier in fitting the gates and railings. I suggested pillars where the external wall changes angles to fit the railings between. Also a pillar at the start of the wall to attach the side gate to.

With all the excavations of foundations a lot of very large stones/rocks have been dug out. Alan has been setting them aside for my garden. So, as the weather was good I decided to make a start this morning at about 10.30. I found a series of large stones already embedded in the bank making a mini path. I worked from there back to where the gates/drive will be, clearing the weeds, digging over the ground to remove the larger stones and putting in more rocks to continue the path. I finished at about 5 p.m. - I won't be able to move tomorrow. Paul jokingly asked if Alan would give me a job - yes, certainly for gardening.

We are still waiting to hear back from Tom (joiner)...