So today we:
– Painted the ceiling (second coat)
– Painted the walls (second colour coat)
– Painted the other walls (second colour coat)
I then went out into the garden and moved approximately one tonne of bricks and hardcore from over here to over there. A total distance of about 8 feet. I separated out from the hardcore the sandy-pseudo soil (probably was mortar and soot once) and placed that strategically around the garden. The breezeblockery now has mud on it, and the two raised beds have some sandy ‘soil’ to aid drainage. We probably have enough that we could, in fact, do the drive way with our own hardcore. Need to check about whether that’s feasible, or how much a builder’d charge to do it, because it is a big ‘ol chunk of concrete and a wall taking down that we require.
Then I took down all but the top 3 layers of bricks of the approximately 1.2m wall which used to stand the other side of the concreted area in the garden, you can see it here:
Then I moved the blue 50 gallon container of rainwater* (about 1/3rd full) to the other end of the garden, out of the area of the raised bed (actually to roughly where I was standing when I took that photo, oh so long ago)…
Then the tonne of topsoil** arrived, bagged it may have been while it was on the truck, but the delightfully cheap delivery company didn’t actually have a crane to lift it off. So they tipped the lorry’s little tippy bit until the bag slid, falling onto its side and sprinkling earth all over the driveway. I can’t say I’m terribly impressed, but then their ungraded cheap topsoil is 25 quid, whereas everyone else wanted 70ish quid.
So, realising we couldn’t leave it there Kathryn and I then spent the next hour, in the drizzle, moving the top soil to the back garden. The first raised bed looks very, uh, raised-bed-y. The second one is more a ‘pile of earth’ motif, and the third, well, when we got to the stage we could drag the bag into the garden, it got dragged round the back and left. So the third is still devoid of soil. It maintains it’s breeze-block trim motif.
Still. It’s a lot of progress.
I (presumably, we) are very tired. And now I think I’m going to go to bed.
This, incidentally, is important:
* and bits of dead bird, and I have to wonder if the ?stolen MP3 player possibly got knocked in there by the builders. It just occured to me that I left it on the wall near the big drum, I wonder if one of them knocked it in and didn’t mention it. Still, we’ll find out when it’s empty, eh.
** With free brick components, wire, metal, roots… graded soil this ain’t.
