Out of hell

The following week so much happened it felt like it went on for weeks. I naively thought maybe I'd be back at work mid week - not so fast.

Monday was busy on site with Ben sorting a whole load of shuttering ready for the concrete pour the next day. The steel mesh was laid and I fitted some conduit onto it for our electricity feed to the kitchen island (we want that to go under the floor!). Adam from Touchwood visited and declared the cavity work we'd done was OK. Phew. (Was he just saying that given it was too late anyway? Who knows, I don't want to know now!). The groundworkers were struggling to get the right people in to assist with the concrete pour, and Adam offered himself and one of his guys to help. We jumped at his offer. By the end of Monday we were all set.

Tuesday morning we were there first thing, excited and nervous. Would the concrete pump truck even get up the drive? the combination of rain, churning, mud and slope meant it was going to be tricky, and when he arrived (at rush hour, of course), it took several goes to get up the drive, interspersed with some frantic digging in the digger to rearrange the drive area. But he did it. And the Cemex truck that arrived half an hour later managed to reverse up the driveway too. This was the sort of thing you see on Grand Designs for sure. There was nothing we could do but watch and hope!

Adam and Glen from Touchwood turned up and helped out with the pour, which was supervised by Ben in charge on the slab. Four Cemex truckloads later it was all poured and there was much raking, smoothing. We'd hoped that we could have it power floated to get the best finish, sadly Ben only managed this on the top section. But it was done, and we had a slab. We cleaned the filthy muddy road outside which took ages. That night we went to the pub. Felt we deserved it.

Wednesday I was on site again to oversee the delivery of a telehandler for Touchwood. The slab itself had gone off and there were a few ridges, but Ben who was there to strike off the wooden shuttering smoothed out what he could with a brick, which helped. The groundworkers were clearing out their stuff and it was the last day on site for the digger and dumper, which had been on site for just over four months! But not before we had another two truck loads of crushed concrete delivered and added back to the driveway to re-make it up. Finally by mid afternoon a low loader arrived and off went the digger and dumper, followed by the groundworkers, and that was it - Groundworks Were Done.

PHEW