We finally got around to pouring the concrete floor in the house last week.
I say 'we' - I really mean a professional builder and another labourer - I vaguely pottered around helping out here and there, making tea and providing a few munchies, all ESSENTIAL of course!
The Raw Materials
We started off with this pile of sand, gravel, and insulation board which is on the several bags of cement in the background.....
NB Because the truck got stuck in the mud when it delivered, it dumped it all at the bottom of the track so I had to enlist some help to get it the 100 metres up the hill - a few friends and a trailer/ 4 by 4 did the trick in a couple of hours.
House cleared and floor prepped....
It took a fair few buckets to clear out the loose large stones and some chipping away of the uneven walls at the bottom....
NB I know the walls look grotty as fuck, but that's the next task after the floor!
Insulation boards down and waterproof liner
I made the mistake of heading out to run a few errands for three hours, when I got back they'd made such rapid progress - blinding with sand, putting the liner down, insulation and started the poor....
It took another couple of hours to tamp it all down and then smooth with simply a bit of wood once the water had risen to the top..
The finished wet concrete look...
Here's the finished but not yet dry floor, with the central post set in too, something else they did for me....
I think it looks pretty good!
An artist always signs his work....
Fair enough!
It struck me that this was probably somewhere between art and building - getting the mix right, and getting it smooth.
Final thoughts - a solid floor!
All in all I'm very happy - that's a 3 inch slab, about 3 tonnes of material in there, that's one solid floor!
Next it's the walls, then tiling the floor which I bought today, they weigh about 300 kilos, my poor car!
Starting to look more habitable. I expect that will take a while to really set. Your road must be making life easier.
Will you be self-sufficient for electricity? I don't expect you need a vast amount to run lights and gadgets if you are cooking with gas.
I was walking about on it today - pretty much set!
I only need a basic solar set up - a few hundred watts will do, generator if I need power tools, and I've got a town house on grid of course, makes life so much easier!
If you're not living there full time then it makes sense. Will be more like 'glamping' :) Will save you some travelling when you are busy on your plot.
👍
Exciting stuff!!
Wow. That's a lot of work. It does look good and I am looking forward to see the finished project.
Yes me too, it's been slow going for one reason and another!
This looks amazing! So nice to see the evolution of this place :) Thanks for sharing!
It would have been criminal to not finish off that house after you put so much work into it!
I'm currently struggling a bit with the carnage created by the digger I got in, need a strategy to tidy everything up - backwards to go forwards and all that.
My lack of knowledge of what I can plant isn't helping... for borders... Cistus (Scuse spelling), Rosemary are nice, various cacti, but I'm sort of stuck after that!
Thankfully I've got plenty of time!
Slowly slowly!
Honestly it just makes me so happy that new life is being breathed into it ❤️ And depends if you're looking for a hedge or just low shrubs for aesthetics. For hedges I'm a big fan of coppiced and woven fruit or nut trees! Hazelnut is a popular one for that :)
Well I want pretty, productive, fire resistant, bee-friendly, medicinal/ fruiting/ drought resistant plants - a mix of, I'm not asking much!
I recently found a great little blog with a VERY hand list! I'm working my way through scheming.
I have to build the soil up first.
I guarantee in 60 years time you won't recognise the place!