Nineteen
On Monday everything goes swimmingly. The salvage yard people are delivering the Burberry reclaimed flooring between 3.30 and 4pm. Mum is organised to sit in the house and wait, and Rob is also coming to finish the retaining wall at about the same time. Organised or what? At lunchtime I phone the salvage yard to check they’re really going to deliver and am told ‘yes, that’s right – my son remembered the house with the pool, so he’s already delivered it’. Er, where, exactly? ‘He put it outside, that’s ok isn’t it?’ Well, it’ll kind of have to be ok… I let mum know and say that I don’t expect her to move it all, and that we have no idea how much wood 28 square yards is. It’s a helluva lot, that’s how much it is.
About a sitting room full, to be exact. Anyway, mum texts me later to say she and a passing dogwalker (see, there are benefits to living on a footpath) have shifted the lot into the sitting room. Where it has completely filled one corner. Which is fine, as the corner isn’t used for much. Except my Christmas tree. In about 6 weeks time. It’s only Monday and we’ve already reached the ‘oh bugger’ moment…
Rob is hard at work with the retaining wall by the time I get home, and grumbling about the fact that my lovely bricks are all different sizes. I manage not to say it’ll add charm, and make sympathetic noises instead. He’s hardly started, yet says he’s planning ‘just one more course’. Not so much a retaining wall as something to trip over then, eh? I can see ‘finish retaining wall’ being added to Sarah and Vincent’s list…
I leave him to it, Guy and Blunkett arrive and we do cake stuff… Some time later Rob knocks on the window and we go out to see what he’s done – we have a lovely wall! It’s already higher than he said he’d do, and he asks how much more we want on it – we agree another two courses for the highest bit of the bank, and he promises to come back on Tuesday to finish it. He’s warming to our lighting too – he says it’s faintly surreal knocking up a brick wall surrounded by trees and party lights – like Peter Pan is going to drop out of the trees and help him. Vivid imagination, our Rob…
On Tuesday there’s no sign of him, but he does come back on Wednesday and, sure enough, he finishes the wall! This is Serious Progress…
On Saturday we finally crack this building lark. You see, what you do is invite two very good friends to stay for the weekend, and then make them do all the work… Guy and I are agreed that this is Much Simpler Than DIY (doing it yourselves) and so we’re converts… The plan is to build a path and sitting out area for in front of the cabin, which will involve a retaining wall because of the slope. And the brick line needs to carry on in front of the wall so that I can mow the grass… Guy and I haven’t got a clue how to do it, but Sarah and Vincent turn up early, have a quick coffee and crack on… The weather is glorious (well, ok, it’s not frosty and it’s not raining, that’ll do). Guy is not particularly well but is being brave, so we give him easy jobs to do like buying 6 sacks of mortar and shovelling gravel. See, I can do sympathetic.
I mark up the line for the bricks, we clean off more bricks, and stick them in. Then we lift them all back out again, mix up mortar, and put them back in. Seems like we’ve done this before!
Then to the wall – Sarah and I lug stones from where Guy and I had dumped them, and Vincent builds a wall… we fill the void with soil and before long it really looks like a wall.
I mix up more mortar and Vincent points the stones. Remember how Darren the Digger put all the soil from the path in the wood and then drove over it to compact it and make it flat?
Well, we dig some of that up as backfill too…
Before long it’s time to put the membrane down – Sarah has her own technique for keeping the thing in place while we throw gravel at it!
We wheelbarrow more and more gravel, mum arrives with another barrow and is pressed into action filling the fiddly hole between the bricks and the grass, and Blunkett finds whoever is nearest to ground level and demands a tummy tickle…
Guy, Vincent and I are shovelling gravel (Sarah is Chief Raker and Director of Barrows) when Guy and I realise we’ve forgotten something… we were meant to put slabs in the gravel. Oops. Do we admit it to Vincent? Or keep schtum and do them ourselves later? We fess up… Vincent says it’s not a problem (damned fine actor) and we move some slabs down to the cabin. And then stand and look at that giant slab from the path… do we put it in place or leave it where it is and hope it buries itself again? We agree to move it… 10 feet across the ‘grass’ and then up and over the retaining wall without touching the wall… We walk it into place and then Guy, Vincent and I lift it over the wall – and we do it! I’m still not sure how, given that Guy and I couldn’t move it at all last week (Vincent must eat spinach) but it’s in place, and looks great. WOO HOO!
Eventually we stand back to admire our handiwork and it’s well worth admiring – it’s FAB! All entirely due to Sarah and Vincent’s efforts. As we stand admiring we realise that it would be better if the wall went about six feet further round the path, just because of where the levels are, and we agree we’ve had enough and we’ll tweak that end on Sunday. We are all stiff and aching – Vincent and Sarah have hot baths, and Guy and I have a swim… We took a picture of the finished wall but it was so dark you can’t see anything, so here’s a picture of it mostly finished before we added the gravel…
On Sunday it POURS. It’s cold, and hammering with rain… Plan B is to Go And Do Other Things and then build the end bit of the wall after lunch, so we visit the farmers market, go for a coffee and visit a fabric shop. Somewhere between ‘coffee’ and 'fabric’ we abandon all hope of building and agree the weather has defeated us – it’s utterly disgusting, cold and filthy wet. We go home and put the heating on instead…
Achieved: We have a wall and somewhere to sit out in front of the cabin. If it ever stops raining.
Hours worked: If we count all four of us, that’s probably about 24 man hours on Saturday alone…
Meditation progress: Zippo. Either building, eating or sleeping!
Purchases: 6 sacks of mortar.
Wildlife update: I’ve got pictures of squirrels! No, really, I have… it’s just that I’ve irritated my scanner by changing my mind halfway through a scan and now it’s sulking. When I get it working I’ll put pics of squirrels on here. Honest.
Plan: We can’t do much without daylight, so it’s cake decorating every night this week until Saturday – then we’ll be tweaking the end bit of the wall.
The ‘oh bugger’ moment of the week: Well, two really. Firstly on Monday when the wood got delivered early and then, secondly, after about 12 hours of torrential rain on Sunday when the new gravel was still resolutely pink. When it was delivered we all agreed it was the dust on it that made it pink instead of grey. Well, it’s now not dusty, and it’s still pink. Doesn’t really matter for the path and cabin, but the bits of gravel left on the gravel outside the pool house are pink and the original stuff is grey. So now we have piebald gravel. Oh bugger.
Sarah’s tip of the week: When mixing mortar, don’t ever say ‘I like this job’ because everybody will then be very happy to let you do it… The novelty wears off somewhere around the 5th load…
Fascinating fact: Sarah and I are old enough to have known each other for 44 years... You can see from this photo that we've always had fun when we're together...
And, by the way, who the hell dressed me in that shirt??
HUGE Thanks of the week: To Sarah and Vincent, brilliant friends, and without whom there would be no wall… We’ve all agreed to spend New Year together having fun and relaxing. Although Guy and I are fairly sure there may be plastering to do by then…
About a sitting room full, to be exact. Anyway, mum texts me later to say she and a passing dogwalker (see, there are benefits to living on a footpath) have shifted the lot into the sitting room. Where it has completely filled one corner. Which is fine, as the corner isn’t used for much. Except my Christmas tree. In about 6 weeks time. It’s only Monday and we’ve already reached the ‘oh bugger’ moment…
Rob is hard at work with the retaining wall by the time I get home, and grumbling about the fact that my lovely bricks are all different sizes. I manage not to say it’ll add charm, and make sympathetic noises instead. He’s hardly started, yet says he’s planning ‘just one more course’. Not so much a retaining wall as something to trip over then, eh? I can see ‘finish retaining wall’ being added to Sarah and Vincent’s list…
I leave him to it, Guy and Blunkett arrive and we do cake stuff… Some time later Rob knocks on the window and we go out to see what he’s done – we have a lovely wall! It’s already higher than he said he’d do, and he asks how much more we want on it – we agree another two courses for the highest bit of the bank, and he promises to come back on Tuesday to finish it. He’s warming to our lighting too – he says it’s faintly surreal knocking up a brick wall surrounded by trees and party lights – like Peter Pan is going to drop out of the trees and help him. Vivid imagination, our Rob…
On Tuesday there’s no sign of him, but he does come back on Wednesday and, sure enough, he finishes the wall! This is Serious Progress…
On Saturday we finally crack this building lark. You see, what you do is invite two very good friends to stay for the weekend, and then make them do all the work… Guy and I are agreed that this is Much Simpler Than DIY (doing it yourselves) and so we’re converts… The plan is to build a path and sitting out area for in front of the cabin, which will involve a retaining wall because of the slope. And the brick line needs to carry on in front of the wall so that I can mow the grass… Guy and I haven’t got a clue how to do it, but Sarah and Vincent turn up early, have a quick coffee and crack on… The weather is glorious (well, ok, it’s not frosty and it’s not raining, that’ll do). Guy is not particularly well but is being brave, so we give him easy jobs to do like buying 6 sacks of mortar and shovelling gravel. See, I can do sympathetic.
I mark up the line for the bricks, we clean off more bricks, and stick them in. Then we lift them all back out again, mix up mortar, and put them back in. Seems like we’ve done this before!
Then to the wall – Sarah and I lug stones from where Guy and I had dumped them, and Vincent builds a wall… we fill the void with soil and before long it really looks like a wall.
I mix up more mortar and Vincent points the stones. Remember how Darren the Digger put all the soil from the path in the wood and then drove over it to compact it and make it flat?
Well, we dig some of that up as backfill too…
Before long it’s time to put the membrane down – Sarah has her own technique for keeping the thing in place while we throw gravel at it!
We wheelbarrow more and more gravel, mum arrives with another barrow and is pressed into action filling the fiddly hole between the bricks and the grass, and Blunkett finds whoever is nearest to ground level and demands a tummy tickle…
Guy, Vincent and I are shovelling gravel (Sarah is Chief Raker and Director of Barrows) when Guy and I realise we’ve forgotten something… we were meant to put slabs in the gravel. Oops. Do we admit it to Vincent? Or keep schtum and do them ourselves later? We fess up… Vincent says it’s not a problem (damned fine actor) and we move some slabs down to the cabin. And then stand and look at that giant slab from the path… do we put it in place or leave it where it is and hope it buries itself again? We agree to move it… 10 feet across the ‘grass’ and then up and over the retaining wall without touching the wall… We walk it into place and then Guy, Vincent and I lift it over the wall – and we do it! I’m still not sure how, given that Guy and I couldn’t move it at all last week (Vincent must eat spinach) but it’s in place, and looks great. WOO HOO!
Eventually we stand back to admire our handiwork and it’s well worth admiring – it’s FAB! All entirely due to Sarah and Vincent’s efforts. As we stand admiring we realise that it would be better if the wall went about six feet further round the path, just because of where the levels are, and we agree we’ve had enough and we’ll tweak that end on Sunday. We are all stiff and aching – Vincent and Sarah have hot baths, and Guy and I have a swim… We took a picture of the finished wall but it was so dark you can’t see anything, so here’s a picture of it mostly finished before we added the gravel…
On Sunday it POURS. It’s cold, and hammering with rain… Plan B is to Go And Do Other Things and then build the end bit of the wall after lunch, so we visit the farmers market, go for a coffee and visit a fabric shop. Somewhere between ‘coffee’ and 'fabric’ we abandon all hope of building and agree the weather has defeated us – it’s utterly disgusting, cold and filthy wet. We go home and put the heating on instead…
Achieved: We have a wall and somewhere to sit out in front of the cabin. If it ever stops raining.
Hours worked: If we count all four of us, that’s probably about 24 man hours on Saturday alone…
Meditation progress: Zippo. Either building, eating or sleeping!
Purchases: 6 sacks of mortar.
Wildlife update: I’ve got pictures of squirrels! No, really, I have… it’s just that I’ve irritated my scanner by changing my mind halfway through a scan and now it’s sulking. When I get it working I’ll put pics of squirrels on here. Honest.
Plan: We can’t do much without daylight, so it’s cake decorating every night this week until Saturday – then we’ll be tweaking the end bit of the wall.
The ‘oh bugger’ moment of the week: Well, two really. Firstly on Monday when the wood got delivered early and then, secondly, after about 12 hours of torrential rain on Sunday when the new gravel was still resolutely pink. When it was delivered we all agreed it was the dust on it that made it pink instead of grey. Well, it’s now not dusty, and it’s still pink. Doesn’t really matter for the path and cabin, but the bits of gravel left on the gravel outside the pool house are pink and the original stuff is grey. So now we have piebald gravel. Oh bugger.
Sarah’s tip of the week: When mixing mortar, don’t ever say ‘I like this job’ because everybody will then be very happy to let you do it… The novelty wears off somewhere around the 5th load…
Fascinating fact: Sarah and I are old enough to have known each other for 44 years... You can see from this photo that we've always had fun when we're together...
And, by the way, who the hell dressed me in that shirt??
HUGE Thanks of the week: To Sarah and Vincent, brilliant friends, and without whom there would be no wall… We’ve all agreed to spend New Year together having fun and relaxing. Although Guy and I are fairly sure there may be plastering to do by then…
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