Flowers

No, not Mother's Day flowers - these were from the electrician that I took a morning off work to meet. He didn't show up - because he was still in Alexandra, having lost his keys at the pub! Apparently I wasn't the only woman he had to answer to - his wife wasn't amused either (I wonder if she got flowers?). We finally met up on Saturday and planned all the power points and lighting. I'm a bit behind on blogging, so here's a quick update:

The roof went on just before the wet weather we have had recently.

And now the roof and spouting are finished, drains have been laid, building paper is on, the base for the drive has been laid, the bricks have been delivered and bricklaying should start this week.
They have finally come up with a handover date - 1 August! A bit later than we had hoped, but at least we have a date. It just means that someone's significant birthday will get celebrated a little late - and we have to spend another winter in the house that was meant to be for just a few months...

Framing started

The framing is going up. We are actually getting a house!

Concrete

We have a floor! The slab was poured last week and the framing is being delivered this week. I'm looking forward to some vertical progress now.

The council building inspector threw a wobbly about the possiblity of clay washing down the bank (towards the back of the picture), so we had to meet on site on Monday to decide how to rearrange the clay and soil. The fact that the bank has been like this for six months is apparently irrelevant. We had to do some quick thinking about future landscaping, which was quite hard to visualise on the spot. We will need to get some of the clay removed so that we can have a more gradual terraced slope. The builder thought it was weird that I didn't want a billiard table flat section - he clearly doesn't know what our last garden was like.


Speaking of gardens, here's a little bit of colour to tide us over until I have to tackle half a hillside. This is Miltonia spectabilis var moreliana (that gave the spell check a fit!). It's growing well for me - seems to like the living room conditions so far.

Slow progress

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.

First construction

The first structure has appeared on site...



Yes, we have a portable toilet!












And the beginnings of retaining walls.
















I am aware that the title of this blog implies that there will be some mention of gardening - which has been somewhat lacking so far. Just in case you want something a little more colourful, I thought I would include the occasional photograph of my orchids, so first up we have Paphiopedilum primulinum, which I am finding very easy to grow and flower. I love the whiskery bits - as if it was wearing mohair.

Concrete!

Holidays are over and things are getting back on track. The first concrete was poured last week - foundations for the retaining walls and basement. The next step is blocklaying - don't know how long that will take. So far my estimations of anything have been way off - I never knew I was such an optimist! I'm trying not to think too much about garden plans - it's a bit hard to get a clear picture of the layout when there are piles of topsoil in odd places. At the moment everything that is not bare clay is a wasteland of fathen and I keep thinking of the saying "one years seeding - seven years weeding". Actually I've never tested that one - I don't think I've ever managed to stay in one place long enough.

Still waiting

The wet weather before Christmas delayed the concreting, then everyone went on holiday. Had a look today - the concrete blocks for the retaining walls are on site, but no concrete yet. We're hoping things might start to progress in the coming week.