The retaining wall is finished at last - it has turned out to be much higher than we anticipated - 4m instead of a little over 2m! There has been a lot of discussion about why and how this happened - seems to be a combination of an error on the plan and an enthusiastic digger operator. I was particularly disappointed that the retaining walls are now solid instead of having a garden area at the half-way level. The builders assured us that they had already thought of that and had planned planting spaces for us. We hastened to have a look - you can just see them in this photo - 10 inch pots set into the concrete at 3 metre intervals! I don't know what they expect us to grow in them - I can't think of a worse place to plant things, and whatever does grow will look ridiculous. We will have to rely on planting trailing plants at the top level and hope they will trail down instead of climb up into the neighbour's shrubs. As quite a bit of this area will be shaded by the house, the only possibility that springs to mind so far is the dreaded ivy. Having found an entire patio hidden under ivy in a previous garden, I'm not sure I want to go there!
The foundations are down now, so we can get a better idea of how much of the section the house will take up. It looks kind of small at the moment, but it's hard to tell with no walls.
Below is a view from the street end, looking along the back of the house, garage in the foreground, then studio, bedroom, bathroom, another bedroom, then the ensuite and main bedroom over the basement in the distance
Here you can see the garage on the right, front door and living areas.
And finally, here is a sample of the bricks we have chosen - Monier Redbourne. Pretty traditional, but with a slightly uneven surface, so the walls will have a subtle texture instead of being completely flat and even. There are all sorts of fancy bricks available, but most of them look to fussy and contrived to me. Worst of all are yellow bricks - luckily neither of us like them, so in the end it was an easy choice. Well, actually we spent several weekends driving around peering at houses and making people suspicious and even knocking on doors to find out what other people had used.
The foundations are down now, so we can get a better idea of how much of the section the house will take up. It looks kind of small at the moment, but it's hard to tell with no walls.
Below is a view from the street end, looking along the back of the house, garage in the foreground, then studio, bedroom, bathroom, another bedroom, then the ensuite and main bedroom over the basement in the distance
Here you can see the garage on the right, front door and living areas.
