What a difference a day makes

[RandAbuild]

Good progress on site today. Nice weather and about 160 tonnes moved. Before & after...

[RandAbuild]

We also had an archaeologist monitoring the dig. Here she is hard at work

[Construction Channel]

lol, we had an archaeologist  oversee one of our digs before. and in fairness he was OK, he stopped us twice to take some measurements and do a few diagrams  but other than that he was good for the crack, "more of the samien old sh*t"

 

then again I wasn't paying his bill

 

[Stones]

Nice work if you can get it!  Looks about as active as the archaeologist on our last build, although the day she was there it was tipping down.  She looked like a drowned rat by the end of the day.

[ProDave]

Nice work. Looks like you wore out 2 wheelbarrows moving that lot

[RandAbuild]

We have to pay her to stand there, 'continuous monitoring' they call it. 

When the digging stops, we'll see some serious trowel action. She thinks there is evidence of a stone wall. Could date back to 1950. How this is adding to the sum of human knowledge is beyond me.

[Stones]

1950?, impressive.  The sum total of finds on our Roman Marching Camp site was a spent shotgun cartridge.

[Construction Channel]

hang on, did you really mean 1950? 

we were digging through a roman wall  not looking for it, actually pulling footings right through it, It got documented and everyone got on with their lives. I have still got a little bit of it somewhere, ill dig it out......again

[Construction Channel]

[RandAbuild]

Priceless!

[Frogeye]

That's a nice looking bit of topsoil you have there........

Anywhere near Cambridge are you???

[RandAbuild]

Frogeye - we're near Northampton. Have loads of topsoil - excellent stuff it is too

[JanetE]

Hey Richard, good to see you're making progress, looking good!  We also had to have an archaeologist, she got really excited when the digger uncovered the remains of some fence posts. Yes and they cost us about £1800. Total waste of time... jobs for the boys!!!

[TerryE]

2 minutes ago, JanetE said:

 jobs for the boys!!!

Let's get this one right -- jobs for the girls in this case

How is the lane standing up? 

Terry

[RandAbuild]

So far, so good Terry (welcome back by the way). We winched up the trees overhanging the drive using ratchet straps (just as well we did - the skip lorry just got under one branch).

The dry weather helps. Getting 20 tonners up and down might be a different matter.

[Construction Channel]

I'm still struggling to understand this 1950 bit. can you please just clarify that was not a typo?

[RandAbuild]

I was being ironic, but can now say what's turned up.

They've unearthed a stone drain - in reality 2 rows of stones with a lid of stones on top. Origin unknown, but probably late 19th Century. Doesn't look at all much to me, but the someone from the County Archaeologist team wants it all recording - drawings, photos, measurements, depths etc.

This has taken a further day and there will be 2 of them tomorrow. It is also holding us up a bit as we're having to work round them.

[Construction Channel]

lol. i was starting to worry the Hippies had actually taken control

i suppose as a small silver lining they did at least find something, and another thing to moan about for the next few years is always a great source of conversation........

 

[Construction Channel]

2 hours ago, JanetE said:

Hey Richard, good to see you're making progress, looking good!  We also had to have an archaeologist, she got really excited when the digger uncovered the remains of some fence posts. Yes and they cost us about £1800. Total waste of time... jobs for the boys!!!

 

2 hours ago, TerryE said:

Let's get this one right -- jobs for the girls in this case

How is the lane standing up? 

Terry

woah woah woah there guys, we will have no sexism around here!

It is clearly a job for any person of any race, sex or belief that fancies being a professional PITA

 

[TerryE]

I didn't say always, just in this case. This is a statement of fact.  Anyway when is jobs for the boys OK and jobs for the girls sexist??

[Construction Channel]

because the women like to moan about it

[RandAbuild]

Thank Jan. Looks like we're on for £1800 too. We are using the same firm - perhaps that becomes the standard cost?

It's the total disinterest they have in interrupting the construction process that also bugs me. They made us excavate / reduce levels to our garage right at the front of the plot, and didn't find anything. This will be built last, so now we have to backfill it with stone, which will then have to come out when we build the garage.  When I pointed this out to them, they had no response.

[TerryE]

On 24/05/2016 at 20:42, RandAbuild said:

They made us excavate / reduce levels to our garage right at the front of the plot, and didn't find anything. This will be built last, so now we have to backfill it with stone, which will then have to come out when we build the garage.

Richard, this isn't so bad is it? You have to put a temporary base down in front of your house anyway that can take the crane and other plant needed for the build.  We've had to do this at the front of our house, and it will all get stripped off to roughly 30cm below ground level when we done -- to make room for the decent topsoil in the case of the lawn / garden side and for the SUDS gravelling and pavier layers on the drive side.  Such is life. 

[RandAbuild]

Hi Terry

No it's not so bad. We'll fill it with stone for now and top it off with Type 1. Setting out the trenches tomorrow, BCO on Wednesday and concrete on Thursday / Friday.

Looks like it's going to be wet tomorrow though - bit of a change from Friday!

[JanetE]

I'm really impressed by your site, what a difference from the last time we saw it, you can really see his big it is now!  You must both be really pleased with the progress