Turnin' Soil

This is our  house. Built circa 1955. The same one we have lived in for the past 7 years.  See that little pickle in the window? That's #3.

This beautiful Camellia, sadly has to be removed to make way for the extension into the front yard. Florists used to come every year to take prunings for their shops. Once building is complete, we will plant another (in memory)

A little path that leads to the front door. 

The front yard, which is soon to be a building site.

Mr 3 Pickles removing the Camellia and clearing the yard for the excavators, due in the morning.

7am we woke to the sounds of machinery. Sounded strangely good to my ears after so much planning SOMETHING was about to happen!!

First contact!!!

The 3 Pickles + Machinery = Fascinated.

Later that day

First concrete being poured into tree root barriers.

Day 2: the concreters do their thing

Still fascinated

The next two days were spent watching concrete being poured and smoothed. We want to have a polished concrete finish (covered in a glaze)on the downstairs floors, so Mr 3 Pickles built a sand barrier around the setting concrete and then "flooded" the surface. This slows the curing process, stopping the concrete from cracking (something to do with the salt in the sand mix). When polished later, it should be very smooth.

The slab has to cure for the next three weeks before the frame can go up. It has been ordered and will be pre-made in the factory before being delivered. 


Is it just me, or do you find these things take waaaaay too long? Can anticipation actually kill you?

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Hello

Hello and welcome to my blog. I've been reading blogs for years, but have never been brave enought to do my own. I have been inspired recently by a few talented bloggers and have to decided to give it a go myself. I'm looking forward to posting photos of our renovation and extention which is currently underway. When we bought this house 7 years ago, we have one little pickle. We now have 3 (hence the name), and very quickly running out of room. After looking around at about a million houses, we decided that doing an extention as owner/builders was the best way to go. So if your interested in seeing our progress, plus the odd recipe and rant thrown in, stay tuned.