Category: Masonry
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The New Shed
We have a block of sheds that, apart from being hideous, are quite dilapidated. Although they’re water-tight, the roof isnt high enough, the walls are cracked and crumbling and they arent particularly secure (tools are constantly being “liberated” by night-visitors!) So we thought it was about time to address that. The only problem was that…
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The Old Stone Wall
When we arrived here 6 years ago, there was a low-yield borehole which, it seems, used to live inside a stone walled pump house. I imagine at one point in time it looked rather pretty with its white and purple bougainvillea bushes growing up the brown stone walls, but having tried for a few years…
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The Kitchen Conversion
In the beginning. This was the last area of the house we knew that we desperately needed to do something about before we could consider it “livable” – as you can see from the picture below, which was taken just before we moved in. It was about year behind schedule, but finally under way, with…
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Our New Driveway
Day one, bringing in the quarry dust, crusher run (gravel), pit sand and 12,000 driveway pavers Day two, excavating the old driveway Day three, finishing excavation Day five, laying the herring bone pavers Day six, cutting the edges and finishings up to the tar
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The Laundry Conversion (Part 1)
Day 1, master builder Freddy going over the plan with his labour End of day 1, foundations dug and laid Day 2, up to floor level Day 3, slab preparation and keying for doorway Day 4, full swing getting to roof level and floor slab Day 5, floor screed and truss extensions fitted. Roof level…
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Our New Garage
Mad skills offloading 10,000 bricks over the wall (and underneath the power lines) because the truck couldn’t get in the gate Building day one, demolish old car port End of day one, digging foundations Two weeks after starting Three weeks after starting Four weeks after starting Six weeks after starting, building complete. Painting took almost…
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Watch this space…
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The Spare Room
What started out as a strange little space… Got gutted and cleaned out… And had some holes bashed into it… A lick of paint or two, and some skirting… Curtain rails, tiebacks, window sills and polished window brasses… A carpet… Some curtains, a bed, a lamp… And then it was complete (just about, still…
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Roofing at last!
After a long and pretty stressful weekend of budget recalculation, quotation from third party contractors and supporting research, we negotiated with the current contractor on the price of the additional works (being the construction of trusses which was an unknown before the old roofing structure was exposed) Pretty frustrating being bent over a barrel – even…
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Two weeks building
After almost two weeks of building (one day shy) the progress is solid. Not much rain delay fortunately. Expecting trusses and roof sheets to go on this week if we can get the timber on site! The over enthusiastic contractor jumped the gun on our veranda which is going to leave it tatty for the…