Hauling stone and soil from my health and safety nightmare

Yesterday James and I went to the homebuilding and renovation show at the NEC in Birmingham. We've been before and it's a great place to get good ideas for your project and to make it way more expensive by showing you  things you didn't know you needed! We got some numbers for various manufacturers and merchants and some numbers for some local oak framing companies. Our dining room extension is not part of the current building plan but it will hopefully be done in the next few years. I've always wanted an oak framed house, but I'd be content with a small dining room extension! There were some beautiful oak framed house kits on display, and seeing them has renewed my desire. I did get the architect to put an oak porch on the plans for the house, I can't wait for the day we get to buy it. We looked at all sorts of other more boring things like coloured render and windows. My mother-in-law looked after the kids too for us so I even bought us lunch in the restaurant. It was good to spend some time together and has meant James has a three day weekend.

The porch that I want one day

The builder was due to start work on Monday but he's run behind on his last job so is going to start on Friday and work the weekend to catch up. Gives us a little extra time to complete some jobs although we're waiting until the last minute to disconnect the water in the bathroom.

Today we dismantled some rather dangerous steps that led up from the back door to the back garden. As we're having a grab lorry remove the rubble from the extension we thought we'd get rid of the rest of the rubbish while we're at it. Turns out there was way more stone in the steps than we realised and less rubbish. That's good news, less stone to buy for cladding the house and less rubbish to pay to remove. The kids helped do some digging too, they were at it for ages, I was impressed. There's a bit of soil left but as a man with a digger will be here soon he can move it with two passes of the bucket, saving us a few hours with a spade.

Steps at the start, health and safety is lax at our house.

Once we'd done

I think one of our hens may be getting broody too, I want some more hens so I'm keeping my eyes peeled for fertilised eggs. If she stays in the nest box for a day or two I'll get some eggs for her. 

I also did the first mow of the year today, it has given the garden a new lease of life, it suddenly looks less tatty.

This week is all about the final decommissioning of the extension, fingers crossed it goes smoothly.