Bricks

The digger and truck team finished their work, and in place of huge chunks of concrete and asphalt in solid clay, I now have lots of fragments of concrete and asphalt distributed in powdered clay. This is an improvement, but still requires work. This part belongs to my wife's uncle, and he's picking up the tab for the waste disposal. Hopefully he'll be able to charge it to the estate agent that sold it to him as 'housing land' without mentioning the construction waste buried in it.


There's so much space here that I've decided to dig a pond on this part too. Hopefully it will attract birds and amphibians that will eat slugs and insects, and it may help to keep plants watered too.

Today the 'brickies' were in. While young 'snowboard-type' lads cut steel railings and nailed them to slats nailed to the walls, some older men attached and bonded the brick facing to the railings.
The gap between the steel rails and the walls should also provide a certain amount of insulation.

As with everything else, the work is being done quickly, efficiently, and tidily. Each task takes far less time than I expect.

Grouting will be used to fill in the gaps and hide the metal underneath, making the house appear to be built of brick rather than wood. It should make the house quite nicely fireproof too, from the outside at least. Most people seem to favour white grouting for a gaudy, harlequin look, but we're having grey for something a bit more subdued.


The unit bathroom has also been put in. One wall is made to look like dark wood with a glossy finish, and the effect is quite pleasing. Unit bathrooms have come a long way in the 16 years I've been studying them.

Yesterday the young master and I dug a pond, and today I added two smart new rows, duly photographing the developments. Unfortunately, I mistakenly deleted them from my camera before downloading them. This Alzheimer's like behaviour is a bit upsetting.