Work continues in the sunken garden despite the rain. We are hopefully that we will have the levels sorted out in the two parts of the sunken garden by the end of the week. However, the first thing that we need to do is to build the retaining wall between the two terraces.
This is the retaining wall that will separate the lower and the upper terrace in the sunken garden. It has rained throughout the day today and this makes progress slow. And very muddy!
With the large steps installed from the lounge into the garden, we have passed a major milestone. The next job is to build the retaining walls for the upper terrace and get the ground level right (together with the drains). Much of this work will be done next week and I expect by the end of next week we will be laying the first of the reclaimed flagstones.
We are going to place the order for the remaining ashlar this week, but unfortunately there looks as if there will be a 2-3 week delay while we wait for delivery. We may well get on with other odd jobs around the property (e.g. flagstones outside the front and back door, pointing on the outbuilding) while we are waiting.
The temporary ramp built to get the telehandler into the lower part of the garden was dug out this morning. You can see where the channels have been dug to accommodate the drains that need to be installed to take the water off the patio. The flagstones will slope very slightly away from the house to ensure that any rainwater is kept away from the property.
The temporary ramp that we built to get the telehandler down into the garden has now been removed. This means that we can get on with building the retaining wall for the upper terrace next week.
Now these steps are installed, the last thing that we need is for them to get damaged. The cardboard should prevent any odd chips or scrapes.
We have had more success today and all of the steps from the lounge down into the sunken garden are in place. And with no damage!
The large bottom step that got damaged yesterday was removed and replaced with a slightly slimmer one. It doesn’t really matter as the flagstones will cover this part of the step.
Paddy and Jonny spent all day on these steps, but they went away smiling as they went in without any damage. You can see that the bottom step on the right is slightly slimmer than it should be. This is ok as the bottom is covered by the flagstones.
These steps look great – big and chunky, but very heavy. Everyone is relieved to see these in place.
The new chairs and stools arrived for the kitchen today. They were ordered about 6 weeks ago, but unfortunately it was just before the factory in Italy closed for it’s annual holidays.
The chairs and stools came from Nuovo Living out at Redbrick Mill. They are made by Calligaris and these are the New York chairs and stools. The seats are leather and although the colour is listed as being white, in reality the colour is more of an off-white. We knew this before we ordered the chairs as there were swatches of the leather available at Redbrick Mill. It was still a relief to see the same colour chairs and stools arrive today!
Although we had looked for some time for chairs and stools that matched, we dithered a bit when we found these. It was probably more to do with the price than the actual product. We decided to have a cup of coffee in Redbrick Mill while we mulled over our choice. This decision was made slightly easier when we realised that the chairs we were sat on in the café were the same chairs we were considering buying. If they are sturdy enough for us in a retail setting, they will last well in a domestic one. Decision made.
It took us a while to find these chairs and stools, but we got there in the end.
New stools for the island unit that match the chairs for the kitchen table. It took quite a lot of effort to find these.
We always knew that handling large and heavy pieces of ashlar was going to be awkward. We also knew that they would damage fairly easily. Well, today, we proved it.
While putting the bottom step in place, a corner of one of the large pieces of ashlar got damaged. The guys did the best they could to repair it, but unfortunately it is always going to show up. Structurally, the repair is fine, but cosmetically, it looks awful. It might look slightly better once the stonework dries, but it is always gone to notice when wet. The only option is to replace it.
The good news is that we probably have a spare step – we ordered 4 steps and it looks as if we are only going to need three. Still, it stopped work today as the repair was attempted and then finally discarded. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.
The largest piece of the bottom step was lowered into position fairly easily. The second (smaller section) is brought down into the garden using slings and a telehandler.
While the damage is fairly minor, it does notice. Luckily we have a spare step, do the large section will have to come back out tomorrow and be replaced.
The chipped corner piece has been glued back in place using some resin. It has been ground back so that it is perfectly in line with the existing stonework. If you closed your eyes, you would not be able to feel the chip. However, when you open your eyes that damage is all too obvious!
We are getting prepared to lower some of the large stone steps into place outside the lounge. Just the sheer weight of these steps make them a major challenge. To make life a little easier, the steps themselves are being preformed using concrete blocks and concrete. The ashlar steps should then just sit on top of these preformed steps. Well that is the theory anyway! With some of the stone weighing more than half a tonne, this is not going to be easy.
The steps into the sunken garden have been pre-formed using concrete blocks and bricks. The wires running through the steps are for an external power socket and for the lights in the sunken garden. I am not sure where the little knitted Santa came from!
As well as installing the carbon monoxide detectors, we have also installed some new lights. Until now, we have had some bare wires sticking out of the wall (safely terminated, of course). We had been waiting to find the right lights and we struck lucky a couple of weeks ago in John Lewis. We bought a couple of Tessa uplighters for the lounge and a small waterproof bulkhead light for above the shower cubicle upstairs.
Two of these have just been installed in the lounge. These are Tessa plaster wall lights from John Lewis. They can be painted, but these are left just as they came out of the box.
I don’t really like this photo much, but if you turn the flash on it doesn’t help and if you take the photo with the lights off, that doesn’t work either. Anyway, hope you get the idea! Tessa plaster wall uplighters from John Lewis.
We fitted the carbon monoxide detectors today. These were installed into each of the rooms where there is a solid fuel (i.e. log burning) stove. The units have to be main powered and linked into the same circuit as the heat and smoke alarms elsewhere in the building. We took quite a bit of time looking for half decent units – a number of the units were large and chunky.
These units from Kidde just look like a smoke detector. They were around £40 each and were supplied by www.discounthomelighting.co.uk.
If one of the heat or smoke detectors is activated, all of the connected alarms will go off. These CO alarms will display “FiRe” on their LED display. If one of the CO alarms detects carbon monoxide, all of the connected CO alarms will be activated.
To comply with the latest building regulations, carbon monoxide detectors need to be fitted in rooms where there are solid fuel stoves. With three log burning stoves, this means three detectors. They also need to be hardwired into the heat and smoke detectors in the rest of the building.
One of the three carbon monoxide detectors that have been installed today. This one is in the snug. The log stove is a Firebelly FB1.
Viewed from underneath there is a red LED display that shows the parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide. Unsurprisingly, it has a reading of zero.
Well, the gardening continues. Apparently, they didn’t have a smaller digger, so we ended up with a big one. They also didn’t have a smaller telehandler (it was stolen), so we ended up with a big one of those too! Mmm….this isn’t helping the state of the grass.
Within a couple of days, this will look a lot better. But right now, it is a bit of a mess.
Despite the rather wet weather, the work has commenced on the sunken garden at the rear of the property. The garden is going to be split into two terraces laid with reclaimed Yorkshire flagstones. There will be access from the lounge, hall, snug and master bedroom. Wherever possible, the level of the patio will be level with the floors inside. This will make down the delineation between the inside and outside spaces. It will also make the inside spaces feel bigger than there currently are.
Today, a lot of the materials were delivered (I suspect there is a lot more to come) and the work has started on levelling out the garden area. We have modified the design slightly, so are waiting on some newly drawn up plans from the architects. Although, this adds cost to the project, doing the work without a plan comes with it’s own risks – one mis-ordered piece of ashlar would potentially cost as much as having the plans drawn up in the first place. So not having the drawings could potentially work out to be a false economy.
One tonne bags of crushed stone, concrete blocks and bricks plus a pallet of cement – it is what every gardener requires!
There were a few lumps and bumps that needed to be levelled out before the crushed stone can go down.
The far end of the sunken garden levelled out. There will need to be some work to sort out access to the inspection chambers for the drains.
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