Sunday 13 September 2015

Making the cabin base

This week we've got a few jobs done in the evenings. James lagged the water pipes that we had moved when we did the temporary boiler move. The only other thing we need to do with them is to box them in to give an extra level of protection from frost.

When we had the groundworks done a few weeks ago the digger driver made us a compact base all ready to pour the concrete for our cabin base onto. This week has been all about the prep work ready to concrete this weekend. We made a wooden frame out of 6 inch gravel boards. The base was pretty close but not exactly level so we had to sink the gravel boards slightly at one end. Next the ground was scraped back at the lower end to make sure we had an adequate thickness of concrete. 



James borrowed a wacker plate to compact the ground as we'd disturbed it. It worked to a fashion but soon cut out so he was back to using a sledge the old fashioned way. Next a damp proof membrane was laid.

A friend had kindly agreed to help James to mix and pour the concrete. We didn't get the chance yesterday as we had to go into town (on a bloody Saturday) and have a look at cars. My car is starting to skip a beat and we're considering getting a younger one that doesn't keep needing fixed. Anyway we've not made any decisions so we'll see about that at some later point.

Today dawned bright and quite warm and the boys worked very hard mixing and laying concrete. Wee man spent most of the day with them helping out and getting absolutely filthy. He was putting dirt and water into a bucket and making 'a recipe'. Bless him. You'd have laughed to see us scrapping the cement mixer out at the end. There wasn't even a spadeful of concrete left at the finish. Talk about cutting it fine.




I did some more canning with my tomatoes today whilst the boys were busy. Baby girl has a cold though so she let me know her displeasure the whole time.

4 comments:

  1. Your son must have loved his day 'helping' out the grownups ....... A messy child is a very happy child! I am watching your progress with great interest, Kirsty, all the more so because we are coming to the end of our renovation, for which I am very pleased. What will I do with myself when I am not having to live amongst builder's stuff, rubble, and dust! But what I will say is......that despite getting bogged down with trying to keep a home going while in the middle of the chaos, that if I had to do it all again, I would.....but hopefully not in this lifetime! Just kidding......it has been worthwhile, and I now have a lovely home, so all the work was worth it. Hope your little girl is feeling better. Vx

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  2. He had a fantastic time! I can't imagine being at the finishing stages, I can't even really get my head round the real beginnings next year.

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  3. I hate working with cement. I am alergic to it, and it eats the skin off my hands. But you have to do what you have to do. I use it for holding posts in holes and for reinforcing retaining walls.

    We're looking for a new car too. I wanted to get a Jeep Wrangler while the 2015 clearance sales were going on in August, but didn't find the right one. The next big sales will be in December so I guess we will wait until then. My wife wants a Hyundai or a Kia but we have always driven Jeeps! I guess we'll look at both.

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    1. We're looking at Hyundai, they come with the remainder of a 5 year warranty and they're comparatively much cheaper too which is a bonus!

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