When will this hell be over?

It felt like we turned a corner when the footings were completed. But still I had to worry about how I was going to build a wall for the first time ever, ARGH! I mean, all I have to go on is some notes from the internet, some pink string and my two weedy arms to lift all that heavy stuff and mix mounds of mortar. But the thing that really worried me was how was I going to cut all those concrete bricks in half - cos it looked like a scary skilled job to me.

So lets forget about that for a while, as I did, and play around with the nice bits, and dream about what the garden will look like if and when it is ever completed! We set out the granite setts to see how far they would go (ie. if we had enough!) and what they would look like on the ground.


Pretty eh?

The garden stayed like this for some time, well just long enough for the weeds to start up again. Great, but as I cannot face pulling up anymore weeds, it is weedkiller this time!

So, in an effort to actually get on with the garden, we set about the many trips needed to get all the bricks that were required to buld the raised area, and the sharp sand and the concrete! In our travel's we came across this marvellous invention, a brick that you can saw! No more worries about splitting concrete bricks - these will do the job just nicely! Thank you Wickes - I think I might even forgive you for delivering the wrong bath at our last house, but thats another story!

We needed 60 bricks on all, and here is a picture of me laying them!

See those pipes, they are for drainage - very important in a raised area, unless you are building a pond! Ah, I feel so clever!

And here we are the finished walls for the raised area, ready for rendering (another headache!)