Concrete progress

Near the centre of the picture can be seen the reinforcement mesh rectangle that will be the garage block base awaiting two lorry loads of concrete.

And here is the first one - able to drive right onto the site thanks to the newly widened entry gates from The Sidings. A plastic manhole, placed just yesterday for the sewer works right in the middle of the entrance way at the insistence of United Utilities collapsed under the load - inevitably.

The figure on the right is Bob the Builder wearing the very latest in fashion footwear. Read Bob's exciting concrete adventure in the posting below.

Bob the Builder's Wellies

Today we have been laying concrete. Concrete is a bit like mud but dearer. This means that the men have to go for a paddle. Here is Bob the Builder. Silly Bob forgot to bring his wellies. Actually Bob hasn't got any wellies because he spends all his money down the pub. Bob is a clever builder. He put his feet in plastic bags and sealed them up with tape. Inventive Bob.

Here are Bob's welly substitutes. Stylish Bob.

Very soon, Tumbler the concrete truck came. "I'm a rumblin' and a tumblin' and rollin' and a tumblin' " said Tumbler. Bob got to work. See Bob in the middle smoothing the concrete. What's that oozing between my toes, thought Bob. Oh no, it was concrete!

By the time the job was finished Bob was thoroughly pissed off with life in general and his new wellies in particular. Bob's mummy will be very cross with him when he gets home tonight. Bob has decided to get himself some proper wellies very soon. Sensible Bob. Can we fix it? Yes we can!

Action men

This is the Kilburn and Johnson building team at 7.30am today - ready for action. Having been denied access to the site by roadworks for the past week they are throwing everything at it today. From the left we have Gav, Richard (The Stig) Kilburn, Tim, Peter, Bob, Scott and Carl Johnson.

We have access

After almost a week of road works to connect sewage and water the trenches have been back-filled and we again have access to our site.   Builders Kilburn and Johnson are returning in force tomorrow.   Several door frames have been fitted today by joiner Dave Richardson.   The plumbing is finished and the rainwater harvesting system seems to work.   More and more lights are coming live and there is a feeling of progress about the place. The heating works too!

I went to Carlisle yesterday for a new pair of glasses and was measured up for them by Specsaver's finest - Amber - a credit to her firm and a new reader of this Blog.  

One of the features of Blogs is that you can examine the statistics and see where in the world people are viewing it.   Unsurprisingly, the UK has most readers by far but, in descending order, the UK is followed by the USA, Germany, Canada, Australia, Russia, India, New Zealand, Latvia and Spain.   You needed to know that didn't you?

Sewer setback

This is as far as we can go with our road works until somebody from United Utilities comes and certifies our work as satisfactory. For that we need an authorisation code. Does anybody out there have one they could lend us? This is the connection to the sewer manhole - which necessitated us boring into 12" thick reinforced concrete.

At the house end of the sewage connection we had to put a manhole. PLEASE United Utilities, hurry up with our authorisation code so that your man can come out, look into it and certify it. If anybody from UU's sees this can they tell the authorisation code people that the work appears to be OK?

Meanwhile, progress is on hold as part-completed road works span the site entrance - and the bill keeps increasing.

A cool birthday present

Today, October 15th is my Birthday. Let's just say the year I was born Hitler was bombing us and I can still remember being put under the dining room table during air raids. I'm what some would consider to be an old bugger. What has this to do with the picture above? It is a 'brick light' - one of four that will illuminate the pathway to the side entrance. As Ollie the electrician was fitting it I remarked that it looked cool, hastening to add that cool was not a word I often used.

Ollie (21) replied "You should use 'cool' more often. It suits you."    Quite the nicest 68th Birthday present a chap could wish for.   Cool in fact.

The fence is marked

This is a cat's paw print - fencer Les Brewer's special mark that goes on special fences. The large circle is of ebony and the four small ones are mahogany, set into a secret part of the fence. You would take you some time to find it as there is a lot of fence to look at.   A characteristic of this project has been the pride people have taken in doing a good job - and it shows.    Not least in the fences and gates.