Well, would you believe it!

I single-handedly mixed, barrowed and laid about a ton of concrete today and still it wasn’t quite enough 😕 Today was the first day that I got to use the cement mixer that I bought about two years ago for the very first time. And I was very pleased with it too, especially when I only paid 60€ for it! Here’s how I set myself up for the day’s work.

As planned, I started laying the concrete base of my new wood store from the back left hand corner, working across to the right and then moving forward and repeating the process. And don’t forget, that I’d banged little wooden pegs in regularly spaced across the whole area to give me a guide for the level to work to. I always thought that the first two bays were going to be the worst, mainly because of access and interference from the two vertical wooden supports for the stairs and landing of my ‘grenier’ and here’s a shot after I’d done them.

It was then just a matter of plodding steadily on. I didn’t bother stopping for any lunch, just a few drinks when I needed them, but it was tiring work and I didn’t get finished until around 5.30 pm. In fact, the two 400 kg ‘big bags’ of the ‘mélange’ of stone and sand that I’d bought from Brico Depot weren’t quite enough to finish the job off, as the next shot shows.

An accurate estimate was always going to be difficult due to the unevenness of the base itself and the fact that the concrete is thicker on the right hand side and I always suspected that it would be touch and go. So nothing for it, I had to clean the mixer, my wheel-barrow and my tools before the concrete in and on them got too hard and then I had to decide what to do. In the event, I thought it best to drive to Brico Depot this evening to get another bag so I can make an early start tomorrow and get finished off. Another ‘big bag’ is more than I need for the base but I’ll use what’s left and more when I come to lay my new path along the front of my house and round to the new wood store, which I might as well crack on with when I’ve finished the latter. By the time I got back from Brico Depot it was too late to do anything except park the car with the trailer still attached and then it was time for a well-deserved hot shower and meal.