Slabs and a lot of dirt

Week 1 of building is finished and I'm amazed at how quickly work has progressed. There are silly small things in life that you just assume are permanent, and when they change it takes you a while to adjust mentally. The bits of earth and concrete in our backyard for instance, I still can't get over how the house we've known for the past year has changed in such a short time. It's wonderful to see the difference although strangely draining emotionally.

Concrete was poured for our patio slab on Thursday after the mesh, reinforcements and posts were put in. Alison and I found ourselves transfixed that morning, watching them pour and smooth the grey sludge about with rakes and levellers. Fascinating work really and we could have happily stayed to observe all day if we didn't have to go to work to pay for this renovation.



By the time we came back from the office our slab was complete, if a bit green and soft. We were careful not to step or fall onto it of course, though there was a temptation to shove our hands in and write our names. The area is looking nice and big which should make room for all the outdoor furniture we want to get (table tennis table included). That pipe on the right next to the down pipe is where the outdoor sink will be installed along with the bench and a narrow lock up area behind it to keep the bathroom and loo away from the cooking area.



The main focus on Friday was to get the side path, car port and driveway dug up. The excavator was back and lowered the levels around the side of the house so that our earth is below our garage ant capping. You could almost climb onto the roof without a ladder back when we bought the house and now I can't even see the roof unless I jump. Trenches were dug and pipes laid down to take water from the garage down pipe and the new down pipes from the car port out to the gravel pit in the back yard.



The front of the house has also seen some changes this week. Our footings and levels are done for the car port, the driveway has been sculpted out and some of our plants removed. We had initially planned on saving the azalea in the front yard as Alison has been nursing it back to health. In the end we figured it would be best to start from scratch with a long garden bed in front to give the house some shade and shelter from the street.



The car port roof will be pretty close to our boundary line so one of the conditions of our building approval was to have a surveyor out to peg markers and inspect the finished car port. It's yet more money that we didn't expect to have to spend but I guess it's still cheaper than getting into a fight with the neighbours later on. Next week should see some more concrete and the retaining wall put in along the fence line. The builder has also cut an outline of the door between the garage and our entry hall so I suppose that's going to be done soon. Progress is good but all this dust is a pain to clean up... boo...