God Help Us!

...Well, may as well be an ark with all the timber we are using. Between rot and the woodworm, there wasn't much timber worth saving. With the missing and broken slates, and water egress causing more and more damage, we decided to replace the roof to the rear of the church, making the hall water tight and habitable. Oak trusses were built on the floor and hoisted into position.  Throughout the works neighbours, family and friends have come in two by two to see how we are getting on. And then the rain came....

...all 37 tons of it. We have been busy levelling the ground and putting hardcore down, to what will eventually be the garden.

Long time no post, but we have been busy. Following on from our previous post about our retaining wall,  we have laid hundreds of dense concrete blocks (weather permitting) to keep the bank from falling into the watercourse and to define the boundary of our new garden. Paul laid blocks with help from me, Dad and Leigh, to get the job done quicker than we anticipated. There’s still a little way to go. We have to cut and lay drainage pipes through the wall, backfill with concrete and top with a timber fence before we are fully finished, but the hardwork is now done (for now).

Bonfire Night for us was a good chance to get rid of all the last bits of old trees and rotten floorboards.

We have finally finished the new kitchen! It's taken a while but we are very happy with how it turned out. It's the first time we made polished concrete kitchen worktops (in fact its the first time we have built a kitchen!) Check out the previous post on how we made the concrete worktops .

1 and a half weeks of digging. 20 sheets of plyboard shuttering. 3 Concrete mixers and 57 tons of concrete later we have the foundations of the retaining wall.  The foundations will allow for a retaining wall similar to that on the neighbour's side of the stream. It will help keep the stream running clear and stop the banks from falling in. 

Well, maybe just 2. Anyway, we repainted the downstairs. Paul doing his best  Michelangelo impression and painting the ceiling.