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26th to 31st January 2004

It snowed - it froze - it rained and the Landrover broke down.

Not a lot got done this week but cavities were cleaned out and covered over - we're using waterproof concrete so want to make sure there is a good, sound join with the slab when we come to fill the cavities.  A couple of loads of 40mm clean stone were placed behind the existing walls as backfill and we sorted out some footings for the retaining wall to step up form one level to the next.

 18th to 25th January 2004

One month in and how quickly it all becomes normal and mundane - I suppose there are less dramatic changes visible but we progress - that's the main point.

Started the week with the groundworker still on site finishing off setting out the house and getting some temporary drains in place for a rather steady flow of water out of one part of the excavations.  By the end of Tuesday land drain was in around the house, some backfill was in place to hold the Terram wrapped drain in place and all of the diggers had gone - so did the groundworker so we were on our own.

One thing that may have precipitated the groundworker going was that the mixer went bang - well actually bang, bang, bang.......  The chain had been jumping off and it was on my list to either remove a link or drop the engine down but I hadn't go around to it - well this time the chain came off and got stuck around the lower cog turning the chain into a flail.  The remains of the chain were collected from a large area and some new parts located.  However next day coming to fit the new chain (and tighten it) showed that the reason for the chain coming off was that the two cogs were not in line so some adjustment was required - out came the angle grinder to make new slots to mount the engine and fortunately it seems to be working now!  Whilst this happened the release pin on the forklift was replaced so we're up and running again. Shame about the weather though.

A day of tidying up - trying to keep the drive from turning into a mini-Somme and doing some fiddly preparation jobs finished the week ready for the blocklayers to come in on Saturday - another whirlwind of activity and the stack of blocks has reduced and the walls grown.

It's quite amazing 1 month ago we had a greenfield site - now we're almost up to basement ceiling height. I am sure we could have been quicker but the way we have done things so far has been cheaper and has given us some breathing space to sort out things in advance and fixing problems.