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Groundworks
Nov/Dec 09
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Groundworks started with us having to build a new road from the Burns Coaches depot to our site though the wood via an existing forestry track.
As mentioned on the site page, we were fortunate to be in good terms with a local farmer who allowed us to remove all the stones from his fields where he was planting tatties, and although back-breaking we achieved most of the road from these land gatherings. Another stroke of cost saving luck was that our wood is quite boulderous, and our yard was an old quarry so this amounted to rather large gatherings that made a good solid foundation for the road.
Place your cursor over the pictures for captions...
| Another Load Bites the dust... | The long & Winding Road... |
| Jim taking time out for a wee pose... | well if jim can do it, then so can I.... |
A hole was then dug where the septic tank and soakaway was to be placed, for the percolation test and the results from this test recommended that we needed a 19m2 soakway..... Thats a big hole and a lot of stones!!
However the hole was dug, septic tank installed, pipework to the soakaway laid and yes more stone picking, around 60 ton in fact, once again all sourced locally in our wood!
| That's goin to be a fair hole... | Graham and his two grafters, daniel and loren |
| even our dog rory lent a hand, paw, eh mouth.... | oh my god, fit's at stiink??? |
Work slowed right down whilst we got all our legal obligation in order, but fired up again recently when we finally employed our brickie Mike Stewart of Methlick to build our foundations. Firstly Jim(dad) had to set about clearing the site even more as we needed a few extra metres, which turned out to be a mammoth task as he hit seam after seam of rock! However perseverance, some badly damaged bucket teeth, and a couple burst pipes on the digger later, he got there and we had a blank canvas to work with!
| what a bonny site..literally! | Work began setting out profiles |
| Rock seam...one of many! | Jim from Ellon Plant takes a breather from getting shaken about by the rock breaker |
Interestingly Graham used to work for Mike as a schoolboy and helped Mike build his family home near Methlick to it is very nice how things have turned out. Graham is being the labour force for Mike when he is on site, (hoping to lose a few pounds) which will be a number of weeks to get the foundations up to floor level ready for the kit!
"Honestly I know what I'm doing" says Mike Stewart, our Builder  |
So it was all hands on deck to get the strip founds in. Our local Plant hire firm Ellon Plant supplied the digger and expertise digging out the track that was carefully and maticulously laid out by Mike, then it was time for the readymix concrete to be delivered by Kirkmyres of New Aberdour, 6m3 one day and 8m3................
all into wheelbarrows and manhandled around the site, and nearly within the time limits allowed by the readymix company. Job well done.
important site meeting between Daniel and Ryan...  |
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Thanks to: Mike Stewart our Brickie, Jim, Alistair & Tim from Ellon Plant, Alice & Raymond and the two Drivers from Kirkmyres, Ryan, Dad, Daniel and Loren, and Murray for helping out over that two days, couldn't have done it without you!
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Next job was to order in blocks, bricks, more blocks and building sand, so that we were all prepared for Mike to come back and start building up the foundation walls. Tidying up though was first on the agenda and we spent sunday 29th March tidying up the site by means of a grand old bonfire. We were joined by our friends Rob and Audrey and thier son Colin for the sunday clean up...
| the Fryor family, Audrey, Rob and Colin | the Fryor family, Audrey, Rob and Colin |
The fire burned on through the day and into the night, getting rid of most of the branches and dead wood lying around, leaving a tidy site, ready for an eagerly awaited monday morning when we might start building blocks!
30th March 2009
We woke on early Monday morning, and after our ritual chores of cleaning buses after the weekend, it was back up to the site for me. Mike arrived and we took up some levels with his Brand new laser level (Woop Woop), spent a wee while getting it to work right enough, but what a smile came over his face when it did!!!!
That done, building commenced with me and jen laying the cornerstone of the foundation, with Mike adding in his Lucky penny!!!!! (Aye but I saw you take it out again when we were not looking)
"to you, to me, to you, to me.....
By the end of the day, we had some construction on our site, with one gable nearly up to finished floor level. Quite pleased because the foundation strips are all stepped due the levels of the site, and there was a lot of scutering around with bits of slate, blocks and bricks to work up to a level that we could build our first course of block.
Wow, a wall in our wood.......
A real sense of achievement today, feels like we really are getting somewhere. Spent the evening setting out blocks 96 to be exact, for tomorrow and suffering some really pink hands now!!!!
