Well, it's been two weeks of "progress" on the build but to be honest it doesn't quite feel that way.

We've succeeded in pouring the slab and turning the lawn into a miniature of the great lakes. Michael is laying blocks as we speak so finally walls are going up. I strained ligaments and probably tore some cartilage in my knee while playing football last week so although I am off the crutches I'm still quite the gimp (nothing new there I hear you say). My injury has brought quite a few inconveniences but on the plus side I have now finished watching all 5 series of the wire (as if I wasn't depresses and cynical enough).

Weather has been the big enemy, I mentioned the lawn, it really has been torn to bits and the fact that the trenches are permanently filled with water is testament to just how much rain we have been getting. But today is a beautiful day. Work is progressing and hopefully by the end of the week we will be up to the first floor.

The BIG DIG

We've started. At last we have committed to building the extension and actually cut a sod. White a few sod's in fact cause we had a mighty big digger doing the cutting. Here was me expecting one of those mini digger yokes but Gerry (the dude doing the digging) turned up with a machine fit to gauge out the sues. Made light work of it though. we started last Tuesday. A perfect day, bright and dry, measured up, dug the trenches and marked the levels for the pour. see how I'm all down with the technical terms now. height and pour and the like. That's cause I'm a builder now......well at least an apprentice laborer / project manager. the rest of the country has given up construction as a bad game but as usual I'm a bit slow on the uptake.

Wednesday we poured the concrete, that was easy, the two lads (Gerry and Mikey), did the work and I erm....supervised and nodded approvingly from time to time. It was all over by lunch time and the concrete set by evening which meant that on Friday another Michael could arrive and start laying blocks and I could keep him supplied with blocks, cement and offers of tea.

So week one ended with the foundations poured and the sub-floor block work completed. We aren't quite out of the ground yet. I still need to fill the cavity in the block work with cement and sand then we can go on to complete the floor slab but fortunately we have had the worst weather over the past few days so I've achieved nothing. today is supposed to be a better day but I would point out that it is 4:58 am and I am writing this because the wind is howling so loudly outside that it is keeping me awake. we can only wait and see what the morning brings.