Sunday 16th to Sunday 23rd June

Hi Blog-Viewers!

It's been a while since the last post but a lot has been happening this week and we're making some great progress!

We're just about there to begin adding the suspended floor (beams and blocks for those in the know) and we've gone from footings to a few courses of brickwork already.

 

 Along the way, we've picked up some artifacts from the dig (that's old buttons to you and me) and reproduced in print here courtesy of Simon-from-across-the-road, all copyright observed etc etc  ....;O) .........

A couple of days at Ascot that at one point could have meant winning enough money to retire ......if only .......

And, we now have an official builders sign - BIG thanks to our good friend Paul Williams (who runs a printing firm in Kingston and if anyone is in need of his services, then give us a shout and we'll put you in touch!) 

Saturday 15th June

Just a quick update on a fairly busy weekend.

The grabber lorry came on Saturday morning and took everything away. Lucia went rowing and Tim, Rubes and Fredo shot down to Pompey for a bit of shopping and lunch at Grandma's. Very nice!

Saturday evening round at Claire and Gary's, then Sunday, just a bit of tidying up ready for the building work to begin. First job will be to put the floor in .....watch this space.

Franco digging the allotment!

Friday 14th June

All we have to do is fill up these trenches with concrete and then it's all done. Simple huh?

Note sure that I wanted to spend the rest of my life mixing, so we've got a big machine to do it.

Getting there...

War of the Worlds!

Fill 'er Up!

Nearly There ....

All Done!

Traffic Carnage at Lonsdale Road

Right, when that's all set, the work really starts. Hmmmm........can't wait ;O)

And a very BIG thank you to all the guys from Southern Piling

Cheers guys!

Thursday 13th June

More digging and shifting ............

Monday 10th June

Lots of digging going on and lots of earth needs shifting .....

 

Take it away Sam

Sunday 9th June

Next up, the footings/beams that connect between the tops of the piles have to be created. This is a combination of having steel frames made up, sinking them into trenches that are dug between the piles and then pouring with concrete throughout. A lot of precision is needed.

There was a slight hitch with connecting one of the beams to the house footings, but it shouldn't turn out to be a problem.

The steel frames are made up and the digging should begin tomorrow. Hopefully, all should be completed this week and then we need to wait a while for all the concrete to harden.

And that should be it mainly, for the foundations-piece. We can then start to think about drainage and building some walls!

The Week of Monday 3rd June

Let the drilling commence!!

Unfortunately, we didn't strike oil, but we did manage to get all the work done in two days ;O)

Sunday 2nd June

The drilling starts this week - it should take a couple of days for the nine holes to be drilled and then to have concrete poured into them. They're to be reinforced with steel and each one will be 11m deep. Yes, that's a full-on, 11 metres!!

The Drill

So the heavy gear was brought round last week, ready to be used tomorrow onwards:

The Cement Mixer

Don't get in the way Ziggy!!

It was a beautiful day and Lucia was at Weybridge Ladies Regatta (btw, a BIG well done to Emily and 'Cesca for winning their heats and going on to winning their Doubles Final!!)

And of course, congratulations to Lucia and the quad for winning their "pot" at Walton's Regatta yesterday !!! (Sat 1st June 2013).

We Won!!

Meanwhile, down on the south coast - Newhaven - the fish were calling. Well, at least one little scorpion fish was .........

Where's the Pub then?

Cheers Enz!!

The burgers tasted good though!