When I looked at the photographs of yesterday’s work on the reclaimed stone wall, I realised that it wasn’t great – the courses were just to muddled up.
There was no alternative other than to take it apart and redo it. The sand and cement that I used to backbed the stones was still soft, so it didn’t take long to take it apart – just a quick tap with a hammer does the trick. If I hadn’t rebuilt it, it would have bugged me for years. It seemed a worthwhile investment of an hour or so to rebuilt that part.
The reason for the poorly built wall? A sprained ankle. I fell over the previous evening coming out of the pub (not because of too much beer, but a pothole in the road – honest!) and sprained my ankle. The next day I was hobbling around. This meant that I didn’t stand back and look at the wall frequently enough while I was building it. I only looked at it at the end of the day and probably only looked at it properly until I photographed it. Then it was too late.
Looking at today’s photos, I am much happy. It looks much better – not perfect, but better.
All in all, three days work – including an hour or so to redo half a dozen courses that I wasn’t happy with.
Well, I looked at the photographs from yesterday and I really didn’t like the part of the wall to camera right. There was no alternative but to take it down and redo it. It took an hour to take it down and rebuild it.