11 October 2013

October 2013







So my work this week was to build a wall to support the 2 letter boxes. The old box was only a pole and frequently knocked over by young idiots with nothing better to do! I decided to do something a little more in keeping with the old house and garden walls.  Now we will get two name plates for the 2 houses to go on the front.

 Once I had the special sand and Tradifarge cement (with lime) I rendered the little tool shed to tie in with the existing retention wall. Looks so much neater! Eventually I plan to do some sort of mosaic on this back wall and a 'living-wall' on the stone wall (on the right). 

29th October
Sorry - looking at the last 'post' I realise I am a little behind with the blog. The last 2 weeks have seen the roof completed, vapour-barrier stapled onto the beams below, the cellulose wadding insulation blown in and the aluminium grid fixed to plaster.  A huge amount of work - (dirty work) in a short time.  

 The first of the internal walls has been started too. Odd to see a door sort of suspended in a blank space. Again - the volumes are looking great.

 

 Left is my upstairs office area. The 'hole' is the access to the attic space above my bedroom and shower room. It makes this 'space' more accessible than if I had an attic trap-door put in the ceiling. 









And while the building team have been hard at work - I haven't been sitting watching. I've done the evacuation of the waste water, sorted out plan of attack for the waste water treatment in / on reed beds, drainage of the lower field and enlarging of the entrance area to the property.

                                                                             
The pipe may look as if it is slanting in the wrong direction - but believe me there is a drop of 2:100!    Got Stephane back for the drainage digging. As he dug the trenches you could see the water just running out and down.

So after a day of digging - he had the next morning off and Bruno and I worked on laying out the geotextile and drainage pipes.  Surprisingly hard work - mainly because of the clogging mud and having to perpetually jump across the ditches or climb out of the trench.

As you can see - we extended the ditch to Bruno and Christel's side to drain their field too. 

The chippings arrived and the afternoon was spent working with Stephane and Bruno to hold back the geotextile while the chippings were tipped in with the bulldozer.   Tomorrow the trenches will be filled in and  we will then move back to the top to finish sorting the entrance area.   

After that it is the reed beds that we will need to be set out for digging.  I've been in  close contact with Alexander Cras (Aquatiris) for guidance in doing it myself.  The quote for having it done (along with all the above drainage trenches) was not acceptable (13000 E).  If you 'go it alone' part of the contract  I signed with Alexander was a 'kit' of some of the essential materials, and his presence on site at crucial times.  So - the ponds will be marked out for Stephane to dig (top one of 5m x 2.5m by 1m deep, and second one of 2m x 5m and 60 cm deep). We'll do them at 20 cm less - then I'll do a re-inforced frame around the top edge 20 cm high to secure the pond liners and stabilise the pond edge.  Once I've sorted this out - I'll have time to organise the planning and ensure I have all the necessary materials and that I'll be able to arrange delivery of the correct sand and stones of various sizes.  Time for a nice cup of tea and bed - I'm exhausted!

October 30th. Another hard but rewarding day.  All the drainage trenches are completed and refilled, the platforms for the two basins have been created and the beds dug. Top one to be  1m deep for the vertical filtration and the lower bed 60 cm deep for the horizontal filtration.  Again Stephane's skills on the bulldozer were amazing.

                                                                                                                                                                      

  Even with the detailed plans from Alexander - we had quite a bit of head scratching to ensure we had it right (outflow of the top basin is at the bottom of the tank and flows into the second basin at surface level). One thing I'm still not sure on is whether or not I should build the re-inforced concrete 'frame' now or after the pond liners are in place. 

The kit (liners, geotextile, inspection pit things and some of the plumbing bits) should arrive next week. So for the moment the edges have been covered with sheeting to prevent any collapsing.