The story of my porch, continued...

The brick work for the foundations is now complete and various layers of cement, sand, damp proofing and insulation are laid in the floor of the new porch.

A very large order is placed at the builders merchants and a lorry with a crane arrives.
200 blocks are delivered

And my front garden looks even more like a building site. We await the return of Wayne the bricklayer to lay the blocks!

Autumn Show

Yesterday was the Horticultural Society Autumn Show. I entered quite a few things and it was a little fraught in the morning as I prepared all the things to take up the hall. We had to nip to the allotment to pick flowers, make another cake and label the photos as I had forgotten. Everything need to be displayed by 11 O'clock and then the hall closes for judging. I went back later and was very pleased to see that I had got prizes for quite a few things, but even more surprised when they announced that I had won the cups in the wine and photo categories.












This is my wine, I got first for the Rose and Sweet red wines and third for the dry white, but nothing for the sweet white.


This is my vase of annuals, winning second prize.

Below is 10 stems of homegrown flowers, mine is the small yellow one at the front which came third (out of 3!!!)














This is the anniversary class, there had to be flowers, pot plant and then 2 out of 4 items, I chose a plate of tomatoes and some knitted socks.

I also won first for a truss of tomatoes, "transport and "A parade" photos and a jar of chutney. 2nd for a basket of vegetables. Third for knitted garment for a child,10 cherry tomatoes. But nothing for my cakes or pasties. I thought that I was quite good at cooking, but perhaps I should stick to making wine!

It was good fun to enter and compete against others, will need to start planning for the spring show now.

On Tuesday the bricklayer came and bricked up the first 6 "courses" that is bricklayer speak for 6 layers!! That takes the bricks to the DPC or dampproof course! or to ground level. Two rows of bricks with a cavity inbetween for the insulation.

And then when the bricks had set a layer of "crushed hardcore" was put in the big hole in the middle, which will eventually be the floor of my porch........

The story of my porch

Saturday morning! The laying of the concrete foundations. Sand and cement were shovelled into the cement mixer and then into the wheelbarrow. This was then tipped into the foundations.

They worked constantly for over four hours, bacon sandwiches and lots of drinks kept them going.
Here it is half filled
and here it is finished, all looking nice and smooth. Lets hope it does not rain and it will set!

The story of my porch

The foundations were dug and finished last weekend, all the boards in place when....
It poured with rain all night and filled them up with water and the edges fell in a bit.
So wellies on and scoops and buckets to hand, we bailed it out. On Tuesday the inspector came and passed "the hole in the ground"!!! and so onto the next step...................

Down it comes!

Lukey then started to take the old porch down.

Brick by brick!

Each brick that could be saved was cleaned up, put in the pile ready to be reused when we build the new one. The hardcore was bagged ready for the base or for the back extension. The bags have been stacked at the end of the garden. If we don't need it in the end it will be offered on freecycle.

Now it is down and looks very strange.

Next the floor, step and path around the outside have to be broken up, each bit was bagged and saved and then the foundations were dug.....

My porch

This is my old porch from the inside. It looks fine, but look a little closer and you will see that the door does not fit quite right and the walls are damp. It makes my house cold and draughty in the winter. It will have to go


Here it is from the outside, it looks quite smart but ohh white doors are not easy to keep clean, one shower of rain and it has dirty marks all over.
So after much thinking and talking plans were drawn up and submitted for approval, agreed and then we made a start.......

More tomorrow!