ToughButterCup

A picture is worth a 1000 words - helps us to help you....

Morning. ...daunting...? Naaah. 'S easy. Just start somewhere and keep going to the end. Easy. And if you need some walk-on glazing, you'll soon know where to go. Brizzle. Just note my signature line eh....... You are very welcome

Bugger. Yes. Whats it called?

No. It took me ages to work out that the only thing that matters is focus..... focus on the leading edge of the bucket. Vertical or not doesn't matter. Grading is the one of the hardest skills. And 10mm gravel is far harder than 2" stone. Good luck.

Exactly. The course you refer to is about ticks on a permit - required not by employers, but their insurance company. I'm ten years in to digging with a digga. The biggest single revelation came from the difference between a cheaper digger (that I had bought) and using a different (hired) machine - but one with proportional controls. Suddenly smoothing a dug-over surface was easier: inching a heavy weight more accurate : knocking a fence post into the ground a breeze. Old, cheap machines teach you in the same way that a student-bought car teaches about driving. It's 'hard work' switching the windscreen wiper on and off when there's drizzle but no rain. Slack gearing and slop in an old digger makes everything harder. But it teaches. So @Alan Ambrose you are right, you will. By the way, I had a succession of mates all coming round to 'play' on my digger. So I set them some challenges ( because they'd ruin any real work) - pick up a garden gnome was fun. In a weird way

I couldn't agree more. The right tradespeople who are - trustworthy, open, experienced and handle communication well make the difference between a hard slog and getting on with it. It's finding them. And there's your time budget ... ticking away - the most silent of thieves

Not a bad estimate of what has happened to us - stretched over ten years. But we have the house of our dreams. (nearly) 🫣

Your project (any project) has four main aspects (sometimes called 'pillars' in management speak) Scope, Time, Cost, and Quality The only one not mentioned above is Time. Your question is this doable is YES. Stretch the Time aspect above and you can do anything.

The problem is not the plan : its the word 'best '. Best for whom? You? The buyer? Both? Only you (both?) can decide. The process of making that decision is difficult and requires lots of work - lots more than I had ever imagined. Because - I have learned - people 'see' things in different ways. Not everyone is comfortable with a plan. Not everyone can understand a 3D plan. Not everyone bothers to read words on a page and think about them. Some can only say whether they like something when they see it for real for the first time. Some like images from magazines and can say 'I like that ' . Some can point at a display at an exhibition and say 'Thats for me' , but be 'unseeing' until then. One way to start the decision making process is to list the things that you do not want.

We were initially very enthusiastic. At the same time as our enthusiasm for them we were - daily - driving past an eco- garden on a University campus (in the North West) Two (3?) small student shelters were constructed next to the eco-garden. The shelters had sedum / eco-friendly roofs. That was four years ago. Initially oooohs, and ahhhs. Now look at them: tatty, patchy, tired, un-un summat or other. Sightly is the word. Once fitted, they need work. Still we have our Newts to keep us scorched by the heat of our own worthiness.

Access is the issue , not the mass. Thinking about it it, inexperience is the issue. People like @nod and @Onoff wouldn't have made the mistake of needing 6 tonnes of MoT1 - along with 30 paving slabs for her greenhouse, and a fused SWA spur for the heater in said greenhouse and a water supply next to the door of the greenhouse - when ( get this ! ) I've ducted the rainwater off the roof to our pond - and 110 pipe carrying that runoff water runs past ( albeit underneath ) the front door of her greenhouse. @jack, @TerryE, @ProDave, (I'm sure there are others) all warned me many times - past a certain point : don't change the design Gently nudging SWMABO ( She Who must Always Be Obeyed) - her response is "How do I know what I want until [.... a whole series of excuse have been employed over the years ...) " I hate that word - until- Looking at it positively: I've not renewed my gym membership. I'm sweating by 10:00 every day recently. 😑

... and perhaps The Who blasting away (Baba O'Reilly). Its the image of that concrete pier that puts a smile in my mind. 4 tonnes of MoT1 coming up this week and a 50 meter round trip from delivery point to where its needed. Well, .... Its only Old Age wasteland .... innit

You already have the resources needed. Your eyes. Make the time to: Look. Stare. Notice. Take loads of photographs and submit the results to the boss. She'll tell you. The most important thing is knowing what you do not want - and more important than that : why not. Go through that exercise ( and it's not easy ) and the brief for your bricklayer writes itself.

Yes, sarcopenia comes to us all, eventually (well - not @Pocster) Resistance exercise is important to slow the rate of decline down. But pushing a heavy load which wobbles because I'm travelling too slowly is the problem I'm trying to solve: not just lifting the dead weight

If only I (we all) had but one job to get sorted. That's precisely the point.