stone masons in training

a very merry sunday afternoon to one and all!

it's been action stations here recently with mucho activity and the breaking of our 'most people here at once record' (9 people!) twice this week.

- the stone masons have been here a week now and we've now got the double door in the end of the barn and loads of other holes in the building which will eventually be windows.

they've also done the levelling of the downstairs floor (removing some bedrock) and the reinforcement of the back wall.

here's how it looked on the first day (we were a little frightened!):





and how it looked a few days ago (it now has a top on it but it's shuttered in and so isn't much to look at yet):



check out the view from our kitchen over the vegetable patch and into the forest!



- we've had the plumber round to give us another quote based on a much simpler system as his original quote was WAY high and overly technical/complicated.

- the stove is arriving in the morning which should be a lot of fun and easy too!

- the chestnut windows and oak floor boards have been delivered and look amazing. we can't wait until they're in.

- but.....by far the most exciting development has been our own stone masonry work.

we've finally gotten round to making a more permanent entrance to the bottom door for our house.

for the first year we were happy with a wooden plank but seeing as the house needs to be better reinforced we decided to build something a little more substantial.

below you can see how it's developing.

as it was pretty much at the beginning just as we'd inserted the drainage pipe:



as the first step went in:



the path and step skeleton shapes are in:



here it is as it is now. we've got a raised bed on the right in which we're planning on planting some wild flowers and herbs for the kitchen"



and from the top early on:



and with the steps in:



and as it is now:



ok, that's all for now.

gairy.