Rock Gardening

Neil and Karen have never quite been able to get the boat adjacent to one of our landing stages.  The previous boat owner that moored here suggested that the shallowness may be due to rocks and bricks which have accumulated over the nearly 240 years that the canal has been here.  This could be an issue when we get our own boat later in the year.

Suitably attired, it was time to investigate!

(most photos courtesy of Neil & Karen)

Legs stay dry .... shirt doesn't!

How deep?

Neil precariously perched, but being supportive

Another half-brick

A bit more than half a brick

The ubiquitous traffic cone

Lesley and Karen being supportive!

Concrete and Clay

The site lies on clay.  This means that we have to allow for clay 'heaving' and necessitates the use of something called 'Clay Boards'.  These arrived a couple of days ago and to our surprise, clay boards are not actually made of clay!  They seem to be large polystyrene sheets which are used on the sides of the footings.  The idea is that their flexibility will accommodate the movement of the clay expanding and contracting.  So our deep trenches were lined with these sheets, which because they were very light were subject to wind and were therefore covered by black plastic sheeting.

Clay boards and the trenches

Clay boards in the trenches

Ready for concrete

Today was the day for the trenches to be filled with over 70 cubic metres of concrete (this house won't be going anywhere!).  A concrete pump arrived on site early on and positioned itself where our garage will eventually be.

Apparently this is a 'small' concrete pump

Over the course of the day a total of 13 concrete mixers turned up to discharge their cargo into the hopper and the back of the pump.  The pump then neatly distributed it to all the right places.

From mixer to pump

From pump to the trenches

Starting to fill

and all done by remote control

Neil on his boat had a superb view whether he wanted it or not!

Neil's view meant that he caught the pump operator enjoying the sun whilst waiting for loads to appear.
(photo courtesy of Neil Payne)

Nearly there!

Just a little left to fill

All done!

Finished. For now!

It's exactly a year since we moved into the village.  However, with all the action today, we forgot to celebrate!

We have power - nearly

Every new home needs power.  We have a power pole in the corner of the site, but no access to any of the power on it which is a tad frustrating.  Currently all we can get from the pole is £17 per year for wayleave.  This was remedied today when Western Power attended to provide us with a connection.  So we now have power on the site.

But we still can't use it!  Our chosen electricity supplier now has to attend to fit the meter and at which point power will be available to use, and at ground level!  This should happen later this week.  The builders will no longer need to borrow electricity from our generous neighbour next door to boil their kettle.  We are very grateful to Sarah next door as she is also providing us with water and parking for the builders!

Onwards and downwards

Fairport is now over and the village is quickly returning to normal. Our builders were advised not to try and get to Cropredy during the latter part of last week due to the inevitable traffic chaos and pedestrians filling the lane, so work did not resume until Monday.

They are now digging the trenches for the foundations. These seem to be somewhat deeper than we expected, but in line with the engineer's drawings  The foundations will raise the house to a level 500mm higher than the excavation (not the trenches!).  Apparently the house will not go anywhere!  Hopefully the concrete will be poured later this week. 

Willowbank's first guests

Later this week, the village hosts the annual Fairport Festival where 20,000 come for 3 or 4 days of music, bands, entertainment, food and drink.  There are 8 camping fields and one main stage in the Fairport Field, but other venues are dotted around the village (The Edge, Field 8, the Brasenose Arms and the Red Lion), so the village will be exceptionally busy.  Fairport this year is sold out and obviously accommodation is at something of a premium.  Our friends Neil & Karen live on board a narrowboat and were planning to attend.  Since we have a mooring at the bottom of the garden (garden one day!) and no boat yet, we offered it to them.  They arrived on the Sunday before Fairport, but only after running the gauntlet of the pre-Fairport buskers charity event at Cropredy lock.

The calm before the storm

Through Cropredy lock with an audience.  Our plot is about 50 yards behind the camera.

Once at the site, Neil and Karen settled in to watch all the preparations.  Our neighbour has very kindly offered access to the mooring from next door, otherwise Neil and Karen would need to climb over the fencing to get in and out.  It's probably a novelty being moored at the bottom of a building site, but because of Fairport, the lines of moored boats stretch for well over a mile along the Oxford canal in both directions, it is an extremely convenient location.  I'm sure they've had better views though!

Neil has his own blog covering is travels on the canal at nbchalkhillblue.blogspot.co.uk

Moving mountains

We have had a digger on site now for a few days.  From our perspective he seems to be spending all his time moving mountains of earth from one part of the site to the other.  Clearly, this is not efficient, so most of the earth will have to go in order to get down to the level of the foundations.

Note though the pile of darker earth at the far end of the site.  The plot used to be a vegetable garden and seems to have excellent topsoil.  We're keeping that!

Over the next couple of days, the earth mountains are significantly reduced.

The holiday is over

On the last day of our holiday on the canals, the builders started work - at last!

We got back home to find the site now full of machinery, a toilet, and lots of fencing.  The contractor insures the site and obviously wants to prevent anyone from gaining access to what will hopefully become a building site.  Over the next few days more fencing arrives making it almost impossible to get into without a serious spanner.

There's not much left of the site untouched.  Even the semi-looked-after canalside has suffered. 

We can still access our mooring though, but only through next door.

We are being warned that the ground works will take 6-8 weeks, and that it will look worse before it looks better!

The wall's finishing touches

Sarah, our neighbour understandably did not want a solid brick wall all the way down to the edge of the canal, instead preferring railings which still give a view but with some privacy. After several weeks of design, manufacture and preparation, they were finally installed and look good. 

The following photos show the first two panels installed with the remaining pair not yet in position.

This final photo shows the last piece of the railing reaching almost to the canal.  There is a small gap at the end which we will be able to squeeze around, hopefully without falling into the canal!

One small step, one large pile of chippings

We plan to keep the lower part of the plot nearest the canal fairly natural.  We have a few trees, including an impressive weeping willow, but over the years, the plot had more trees which have been removed.  In particular, one large stump remained and since it was close the edge of the canal, it was going to be in the way, so it had to go.

A man with a stump-grinder was duly engaged to do the honours.  Although a small step in the context of building a house, it was a significant milestone as it was the first time any significant machinery had done any work on the site.

By the time the photos were taken, he had already removed a good deal of the stump.  It does seem a very efficient way of generating loads of wood chippings which we levelled out over a considerable area!

It won't stop growing

Whilst we wait for the architects drawings and contractor selection process, we have tried to keep the plot reasonably tidy.  This has largely involved heavy-duty strimming and hedge cutting.  Lesley has done an excellent job tidying up part of the canal bank whilst keeping it looking natural.

However everything on the rest of the plot just won't stop growing.  I try and keep it under control with regular strimming but if I miss a bit, you can guarantee that brambles have moved in before the next visit.  On one of the larger tree stumps, we seem to be growing a colony of some very large mushrooms.  Each one measures about 18 inches across.  I am guessing that they're at best inedible, and at worst poisonous, so I leave them alone.  I don't strim them as that would result in thousands of little fungus pieces widely distributed over the rest of the site.