On the move

At last! I got a message from my builder on Monday that he hoped to have a ‘pelle’ (mechanical shovel) on site today to get going on the ‘terrassement’ for my house. This involves digging out an access road that will be filled with heavy stone to take the weight of the site vehicles and machinery during the construction and will also be the access road to my house when everything’s complete, creating a level base for the house and digging out the foundations.

After all of the delays that the project has been subjected to I hardly expected anything to happen – maybe tomorrow or the day after, but not today – but this morning I received a message that the ‘terrassier’ would be arriving between 8.30 and 9.00 am and sure enough, he did. That meant that I had to get cracking immediately to move my ‘tonnelle’ which he confirmed would be in the way, and after I’d removed its side curtains and pegs, he gave me a hand to move it out of the way down my land.

Afterwards I got some more help to move it the whole way to the bottom, pegged it down again as we are expecting some gusting winds over the coming days and moved the table and chairs into it as well.

The ‘terrassier’ started work immediately and yet again I was amazed at the amount of material that these machines can shift in a relatively short time. These shots were taken just a few minutes after he’d started work on the access road.

While I was setting the ‘tonnelle’ up down at the bottom, he’d already started shifting earth down to create the level platform on which the house will be built.

The last three shots show what will be my house’s access road.

And amazingly, all of the above was done in just over an hour the shots all having been taken at only around 10.30 am.

The ‘terrassier’ continued working until stopping for an hour’s lunch break at midday and then got going again. I then had to leave to pick up the chemical-free plastic hosepipe that I recently ordered to extend my water supply to the bottom of my land so I can move my caravan. On the way back I passed a large aggregate lorry which I knew had just delivered the stone for my access road. Sure enough, when I got back the ‘terrassier’ was busy laying it and was already half finished.

Here are a some shots of the large hole he had dug out to create a level platform for the house.

As well as the ‘pelle’ which he had used to shift all of the earth the ‘terrassier’ had also brought a heavy roller with him and after laying the stone for the road to his satisfaction he then unloaded it and began rolling it down to create a firm base. Here are some pics that I’ve lifted from a short video that I shot using my Fimi drone while he was doing so.

And that was it. He’d finished, packed up and gone by 5.00 pm which I found amazing given the amount of work that just one man had done with the help of two machines. Imagine how long it would have taken back in the day when it all had to be done by hand! But anyway, my project is now moving and today was a great leap forward. I can’t wait for the next stage which will be laying the foundations, but more on that later.