Here is a wider view of the trench. There are a lot more sandstones and I have underestimated the amount of soil I am taking out of the trenches. The piles of soil are getting higher. Had a long, hot bath after all this. Later in the evening I had a meeting with John the builder to plan putting in the beams. We are going to put in the beam in the living area first. I will need to excavate where the foundations for the steel upright beam will be located to assess how large the foundations need to be.
Here is the trench from the other side. However, I am still not down to ground level of the garden in the house behind. I need to be below that to ensure a solid foundation for any wall or fence that I put up. So still a lot of work to do.
Spent two one-hour sessions on the trenches this afternoon. It is slow, tedious and tiring work - just aiming to do it bit by bit. The trenches are becoming more well-defined.
I must be pacing myself better.. or getting stronger.. as I was able to lift and lever this really heavy stone out of the trench onto the raised area. I did a bit more later on digging out. My Grandad's old pick axe has been a very productive tool. Finished around 7ish.
These are the three stones I eventually got out. If there are any more under where these were laying I will leave them as part of the wall foundations.
I then spent ages digging out three large stones. The line of the trench space created will act as the front of the trench for the rubble and concrete foundations I will put in once the whole trench is dug out.
Spent the afternoon doing bits and pieces on the trenches for the foundations of the wall which will be at the back of the raised patio. I attacked the roots of the tree stump - made some progress - and also dug more of the side trench for the wall that will be built in front of the stump.
This is the view from the other end of the room.. next to the front door. You can see the current beam and the pillar (on the right) that are going to be replaced to provide a complete span i.e. the pillar will not be there. The walls between the firplaces need to be replastered. Took it easy for the rest of the day, although I still have a lot of work to do putting tools and newly-cleaned crockery away.
I spent over 3 hours dusting and cleaning from 9 this morning to lunchtime. The dust is everywhere ... settled on stuff I had cleaned yesterday .. still settling. But the room looks more back to normal. Not sure what to do with Grandad's glasses cabinet .. sell or put back in the large firplace opening.
There were 14 bags of rubble ... and a good use for all those wasteful supermarkt plastic bags ... I covered them later with a large plastic sheet .. it will probably rain tonight. Finised at around 7. Just in time to watch Dr. Who. Tomorrow I will use the Dyson on the floors, the steam cleaner in the kitchen, dust the furniture .. and wash crockery. Lot of work ahead tomorrow to get things back to normal. Now for a long, hot bath and off to the pub afterwards.
I took everything out of the back room.. tools etc ... into the back yard.. so I had free space and could bag the rubble and dust ...
The amount of rubble and dust was amazing .. this photo does not do justice to the amounts to be cleared... you can see the Angle Grinder to the right of the stool ...
I then spent most of the rest of the day ... with a break to watch some of the England v. Northern Ireland between 3 and 4 ... using my new Angle Grinder to take out the mortar between the stones and bricks ... the front, both sides and inside the fireplace.... the amount of dust was amazing ... thankfully the wind was coming in the front door and a lot of the dust went out of the back window ... but a lot settled, too ... I finished the work around 6 ...
Continuing on from yesterday, and starting around 10 a.m. I decided to take off the whole strip of plaster where the beam for the wider entrance to the kitchen is going to be ... looks ok to me ...
As a treat I made myself pasta - with baked beans, black beans, chopped tomatoes, and a dash of cream of chicken soup and some chopped up cooked chicken - very tasty !! The wine helped, too... not sure why the picture is all hazy... the volumes of dust had settled by then... ok .. time for my bath... and then a quick pint or two at the Forest Arms..
Here is a wider view of the whole fireplace and chimney breast... the stone and brick will need a lot more cleaning.. and the old mortar taken out ... I intend to do that tomorrow.... and bag the HUGE amount of rubble that is now on the floor... will use that in the foundations for the walls on the patio...
And this is the finished result with the red brick on the left of the picture now uncovered...
This is it half way uncovered ... it is a combination of stone and red brick again... the red brick is still to be uncovered... according to the builder, John Pattinson, the red brick is used on the 'flu' side of a chimney breast ...
This is how the large fireplace in the back room looked before I started ...
So I took off the plaster ... the stone wall looks normal to me.. hope he can handle it easily...
The builder who came last Friday wanted to see the state of the stones and how they were laid before he could commit to a price for putting a beam in this wall to provide wider access to the kitchen...
This is the eerie effect from the other side of the big plastic sheet....
Had the day off yesterday... business meeting ... and as the weather seemed unsettled this morning ... decided to take plaster off the walls in the back room... so the first thing was to move all the furniture to the front room... and put a big dust sheet up...
I dug out more of the trench under the willow tree stump. It is about a 4 feet gap from the existing wall to the post which marks where the corner of the raised patio is going to be. The roots are substantial and I will need my electric saw to get them out. I also dug out 3 or 4 more large sandstones. It doesn't look much work but it was tiring. So was the task of bagging the plaster from the kitchen afterwards. I was going to go out and attack that root this evening but I think I will call it a day.
Didn't do much today. A builder came last Friday to assess what was required to take down the wall between the kitchen and living room. He said we needed to look at how the wall was built and asked that I take off the plaster where a supporting pillar for a beam would stand. So I did that from the kitchen side. The plaster came off easy in the end - hit it with my grandad's lump hammer - but dust everywhere in the kitchen.
