Goodbye winter!

Gum tree

The missing link

Here are the stairs that were delivered for the deck project. There'll be steps between the top deck and the lower deck then down to the garden to create the much-loved kiwi concept of "indoor-outdoor flow". Also known as making it easier to feed the chickens and put the compost out.

Sadly the one set of stairs was too short and the other too long and both need to be re-made. Hopefully the replacements will arrive this week and then we can try them out and the builders can start cladding the top deck.

Upstairs, downstairs

Now that all the framing is in place, we're beginning to get an impression of the scale of the decking project! I think we're going to make some more friends so that we can have big parties...

 

Pole Position

Once the digger had dug all the post holes, the next visit was from a concrete mixer. The poles were erected and concreted in place, ready for the framework of the deck to take shape.

Digging Deep

Since my last post a month ago, I've been working hard back at work and the builders have been working hard here at home. The construction of the deck has moved on significantly but there still seem to be a good few weeks of work left to do.

One of the most exciting stages so far has been the visit from a big orange digger. It was quite something to walk out of the front door and find a digger just outside the porch. It was also rather alarming to see a digger from the kitchen!

A series of deep holes were dug for the main supporting posts, carefully avoiding the septic tank, all the service pipes and cables that the builders had carefully laid a few months before and the grapefruit tree which sits within the construction zone. The only thing to suffer was the ground - there's so much mud here now that we're about ready to host Glastonbury or farm hippos.