Day 5 - Four Seasons In One Day

The day began in a similar vein to that of the previous day; wet.

Waking up to a sodden and grey Friday morning was not what I had expected if the media meteorologists were to be believed. The previous day's less than spring like weather was still well and truly with us. In fact it was was sat down in the local saloon, feet up on the table, casually sipping whiskey from a shot glass showing no signs of leaving town anytime soon. 

Okay, so maybe this extended winter is starting to get to me...just a tad.

Let's not forget that because the weather in February and March had been so bad (the worst since records began), that our builder's other jobs had been delayed by 3-4 weeks , which in turn had delayed the start of our job by 2 weeks. Theoretically, if we had started on the 25th March as was intended, we'd have foundations laid, and a fair amount of brickwork completed already...possibly even a new porch.

The reality though is that the guys have made good progress in the last

Anyhoo...the lads turned up at 7:45am I had their tea and coffee ready for them and by 8am they continued from where they left off the previous day. Digging up concrete and the earth/hardcore/assorted landfill that lies beneath, is never a nice job; even less so when it's pelting down with rain. But someone's got to do it. I was told this part would take a little longer as they were having to be relatively delicate with their excavating as to avoid digging through any of the utilities; water, gas and electrical supplies. This took the best  part of the morning and numerous refills of coffee and tea. During this time, the rain eased off and the sun had come out. It then went back into hiding and it started raining again. This happened pretty much all through the day. Needless to say, having a lot of clay-rich earth being dug up, mixing with rain and then having two cats casually coming in and out of the house as they please, was taking its toll on our parquet flooring.

Guilty Tim

Another skip full of rubble and earth was taken off site and the trench was dug at the front of the house which will be filled with concrete to provide the foundations for the porch. This also took a while as the water supply from the main ran directly under the front door, under the hall and into the kitchen. This will be cut off and a new supply routed directly into the garage where the new combo-boiler and megaflow storage cylinder will be sited.

Trench dug out for the porch footings.
The pipe in the foreground is the current water supply.

Once all the "fiddly digging" was done the boys were able to crack on with digging out the remaining soil and then shoring up the trenches so that any further rain wouldn't cause cave-ins.

Monday should see the delivery and pouring of the concrete and perhaps the first laying of bricks on Tuesday (weather permitting).

That's it for now. Time to walk the dog.

By the way, it's raining.