The Blog of the Frog

Photos aren’t always every day now because it’s hard work to remember to take them 😆 and I would imagine it would get quite boring if it’s just another row of bricks to see! Often these days you can’t even really see what they’ve done either.

Though having said that….:lol:

Monday they worked on the path and dismantled my big wooden ramp outside the back door (there were a couple of frogs underneath it of course, they’re everywhere in this garden!) so I didn’t bother with pictures.

On Tuesday the bricks were delivered, which was fantastic as they weren’t meant to come until Wednesday and even then it wasn’t certain that they would arrive.

So, Tuesday….

These were taken as soon as they’d left so you can quite clearly see the different colour where it hasn’t yet dried!

And they had to get their demolishing in too 😛 Horrendously noisy and seemed to take ages!

Didn’t get any pictures Wednesday or Thursday, it was much of the same – more bricklaying. Now there are so many walls up I often can’t actually see what they’re doing so I have to rely on second hand information 😉

But Friday was rather exciting too…

They came and put scaffolding up, looks like even more of a building site now 😆 Something is interfering with the satellite signal – not sure if it’s the scaffolding or the fact that so much of my annexe is up now. Dish might need moving…

Tune in next week for another exciting installment 😉

When they didn’t come back after the weekend last week it was quite a shock to the system, you don’t realise how much you know they’re there even when they never come into the house! (They don’t even use our toilet)

But I adjusted and then on Monday it was quite a shock to have them back 😆 No pleasing some people!

It’s been the most incredible weather this week, it’s like July or August – never mind April! So we’ve had builders in shorts 😆 But it’s nice weather for them to work in.

Anyway, moving onto the pictures!

Monday…

Now that most of the internal walls are up it’s really difficult to fit the whole thing into one photo, so I don’t think I’ll be doing that anymore! This was the best I could do. It’s looking through the window at the far end, up towards the house.

And then he attacked the rendering on the wall 😛 It was horrendously noisy! We just had it repainted not too long ago, but we still have some paint left so at least it’ll match once the wall is up (that’s some kind of support for the wall) and rerendered either side.

Tuesday…

Roughly the same angle as yesterday’s picture, you can see there’s some more wall! My kitchen is going to be in that corner and my bathroom on the other side of the wall.

And another comparison shot, the wall has been completed and is now attached to those supports. The hole nearest the house is a window in the new downstairs toilet, the one further along is a window in my bathroom.

Wednesday….

Just to add a bit of variety to things here’s a new angle! This is (fairly obviously) looking down the garden. The hole is going to be my door opening out onto the new patio with a window next to it. I picked this picture because today they’ve been doing the insulation on the outside, which is what the silver stuff is, and it looks the same all over so I thought a different sort of shot would be nice for a change. They’ve also put that white plastic stuff round all the doors and windows which I think is to seal the cavity and give them something to put the window/door frames in.

Thursday…

Bricks, lovely red bricks….:D Isn’t it fantastic?!

and finally Friday…

The only problem is we were meant to have a delivery of bricks on Thursday, and they never turned up. Then the manufacturers said they wouldn’t be able to deliver them until Wednesday which is a pain. There are only a few left now so the builders may do the extension to the drive hammerhead instead, as it’s a bit hard to brick lay without bricks!

Just before 8 o’ clock on Thursday morning and look waht turned up in our driveway! Luckily I was already awake cos it would’ve been rather a rude awakening otherwise 😉 Looks like fun to drive though! The things on it are for the floor.
 

 
Nice and clean, ready for the floor to go down 🙂

And then on Friday they actually put the floor down!

Monday….

Look at all the wall! I still can’t believe how quickly it’s progressing, it’s incredible.

No pictures on Tuesday, I would lie and say it’s because nothing happened but actually it’s because I forgot! The only thing they would’ve shown is a bit more wall though.

Wednesday….

The big square hole is a window, though I think that’s probably fairly obvious 😉

And finally, Thursday!

Most of the internal walls in the main room are up now 🙂 This picture also quite nicely shows the concrete floor they’ve put down in the bathroom/cloakroom/passage

They had Good Friday off and they’ve got the whole of this week off as well so no more building updates until next week!

Wednesday….

Not a massive amount to see.
Thursday was much the same and the light was bad so we’ll pass on those!

Now Friday, the real excitement….

We have concrete! Or the mixer, anyway

Now we have concrete 😀 Going in!

And it starts to fill up…

When they came back on Monday there was a slow worm and a newt in the trench! Both alive and moved to a slightly more suitable place 😉

End of Monday….

As you can see the concrete has set and they’ve cleared most of the earth from the middle!

Standing in the extension and they’ve dug out a trench down the garden for the soak away (basically takes the rain water away)

Tuesday…

Internal walls have started to go up! This was actually take really early Wednesday morning just after they’d arrived but before they’d done anything, thus why there are people in it 😉

And finally Wednesday

This is the far wall, they accidently made it shorter than it was meant to be so this is some rather clever “stepping back” of the blocks to gain back most of that extra length! I have lost a tiny bit of length but nothing significant now I don’t think – before it was about 8 inches!

It’s quite incredible how quickly it’s progressed!

So, that’s this weeks installment 🙂 It’s so hard to keep on top of all these photos and select the best ones to use!

At Cannington yesterday we went up to the farm because they’re in the middle of lambing. We go every year at least once, sometimes twice! I had my camera with me and so I managed to take a couple of pictures.

Mountaineering Lamb!

The latest in ear styles. What every well-dressed lamb is sporting this spring!

Brand new triplets 🙂 Poor girl had a heck of a time delivering them!

It was so nice to get out of the house, everything was really getting to me and I badly needed to get away from everything for a few hours! I felt like a new frog by the time we got back home.

They did come on Thursday and although it was too late to start any digging they stood around and talked, got measurements..etc and apparently that constitued starting because they came back on Friday and started digging! Before I start there are larger versions of these photos plus more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/15534622@N00/ – that goes for any subsequent photos as well!

So, this is the garden before we started –

(Ignore the bins ;)) The run is in the way but it’s standing on crazy paving (with weeds…) and there are steps behind it. 

By Friday evening where there was once a path with steps down to crazy paving there is now this….
 

This was Monday lunchtime (thus abandoned vehicles :lol:) 
 
 

and by Monday evening….
 

Finally the end of today (Tuesday)

 

Quite impressive for just a couple of days work! Tune in next week for another exciting installment 😆