Building a new house

So this is getting a bit repetitive - jump in the Land Rover at 9 (it's got all the gear in the back) and drive to Gellifor. Get going on the last three timber panels. A couple need the uprights trimming which slows things down. Liz arrives late morning and in due course we enjoy a very nice picnic lunch. In the afternoon we have a visit from Edward Bagnall who is showing off his Land Rover and collecting hazel whips from the hen-run at home. In the late afternoon I decide to try to get the uprights in for the temporary fence at the front of the plot. In digging one of the holes I find what is probably the sewer pipe. Fortunately I don't break it. Magically, the jumbo bag of ballast is used up on the last mix of concrete and the posts are in place. (I also had just enough nails in old stock for the feather boards. I think I used about 1100. Tomorrow I am off to Wrexham for the start of my 4-day First Responder training course. I might get to the plot one evening to...

Battled a bit against the weather and over-active guts today - thunderstorms and the new multi-coloured diet we are on to improve our gut flora. I did the woodwork for another three panels (so that's eight of eleven) and Liz brought lunch over and did some soil-moving and weed-clearing. Finally gave up and retired to home comforts about half past two.  Then used some of the 3x2s and featherboards to make a side gate for Hugh and Lindsay (actually the second gate as the first one was made to a width of 30" as a result of a hastily scribbled 36" being misread). Three more panels to finish tomorrow, then the temporary low fence at the front to do. Need to finish tomorrow as my First Responder training will fill Tuesday to Friday this week, and Friday marks the end of the 28 day post-completion period during which we undertook to erect the fence.

So, since the Big Job on Tuesday, I have had three days travelling to Manchester, two for MGS and one for Hugh and Lindsay. Today, Saturday 26 May, I returned to start the woodwork. It was a pleasure to be able to reverse the Land Rover onto the plot through the new entrance. The plans I had been hatching for a while to use clamps to set up the framework for the featherboard panelling worked out fine, but setting up is a little slow. The day was seven hours of clamping and nailing. Somewhat counter-intuitively, it's a rule of English boundary marking that the person who puts up a fence, sometimes at great expense and personal effort, gets the less attractive side of the fence. The neighbour has to be offered the smart side. In fact, the kind of fence we've chosen can be double skinned, so in the fulness of time I will probably add a layer of featherboards to our side. For now, however, this is how it looks, first after the initial panel was in place, then at the end of...

So this was to be a big day. I had arranged to meet Steve in Gellifor, and he arrived with a 1.5 ton digger at 8.30. We were up against it, because Thorncliffe had brought forward the time of stone delivery/waste removal from early afternoon to late morning. First of all the walls came down, with the stone being stacked just inside the boundary-to-be. Some sections were still securely mortared together - a job for the future to sort all this out. The big challenge was always going to be getting the eucalyptus stump out, and it certainly gave Steve a fight, as it had a big taproot. The other challenge had been to estimate the amount of MOT mix we needed, and how much spoil was to be taken away. We had gone for 10 tons in and 15 tons out, and it worked perfectly. Steve made really good progress and was ready by 11. When the big Thorncliffe lorry came we had problems with three drivers who were delayed - a lady bringing home medication for her ...

Well this is getting repetitive, and my body felt the pressure a bit today, with a hot and sunny morning and four more posts positioned and concreted in place. A couple of the posts took a few goes to get their height right, which made for additional heavy lifting, and the holes took three mixes of concrete, conveniently leaving a little ballast and cement for when we get to the temporary fencing at the entrance. So that's all the concrete posts in place, and the next fencing push will be to build the timber close-boarded panels in situ. But that will have to wait for the bank holiday weekend, as tomorrow Steve is digging out the entrance, and on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I have trips to Manchester in the diary for a variety of reasons. This is how the line of posts looks now.

Two more long half days, but nice to realise this afternoon (Sunday) that the fencing materials were only delivered on Friday, and now 9 of the concrete posts are in the ground (8 of them concreted in), the timber has all been moved up the garden to its relevant place (thank you Elizabeth), and half of the bulk bag of aggregate and two of the 4 bags of cement have been used. On Saturday I had to spend quite a long time enlarging seven post holes following a little adjustment which took place once I had physical 2.4m measures to lay down along the boundary line. My first effort at marking up the positions of the posts had been reasonable but not perfect. On Sunday more posts were 'popped' in their holes (including the monster corner one which Joshua kindly came over to help me with) and 4 were concreted in. Earlier I had been sorry not to have more large clamps (each post being held pre-concreting with two) but now I'm quite pleased that they have rationed the amoun...

The fencing materials had been ordered at TP in Denbigh on Wednesday and everything arrived bang on time at 1.30pm Friday. The unloading did delay three motorists but they were all very understanding. There's plenty of stuff. The majority of the 2.4 metre concrete posts are just about liftable by me, but I'm calling in assistance for the much heavier corner post which is needed for the change of direction in the fence at the front of the plot. When I say liftable, I don't claim that I can straighten my legs under the load! Liz kindly took this picture of me as a bent old man.  The plot slopes slightly from back to front, so after positioning the back post I temporarily positioned one 8 panels or so further forward. Then, the posts went in, working from the back, with their tops lined up and their sides checked with a long spirit level. As a further check, the 8 foot cross timbers went into the slots temporarily. Stakes and clamps held the posts ...