As part of each of the sleeper walls I have been building there are some steps also made from sleepers. I’ve used a kind a brickwork pattern to link them into the main wall.
To give each set of steps extra strength they’ve been packed first with hardcore. What’s not shown here is the concrete that has also been added between stairs to really lock everything together.
House
19
Mar 09
Sleeper steps
9
Mar 09
Another wall, another level
Having finished the back level in the garden the next stage was to do the next level down. Eventually this will have a shed and some vegetable beds. For now I just want to get it flat and get the wall up. The wall retaining this level is the same as for the back and upper level – made from sleepers.
First step is to dig another trench 
Then dig some pits for uprights. The sleepers you can see are already buried in the ground for a third of their length. I’ve also added some metal straps for extra support.
Next bolt more sleepers to front until you have a wall:
“No daddy, you’re doing it all wrong”
“Let me show you how to do it properly”
1
Mar 09
How to remove a tree stump – the hard way!!
Another day, another stump. For reasons previously explained no machinery here – all hard graft and digging. This time though I did take regular breaks which enabled me to snap a few pics as I was going.
First dig a trench all around said stump:
Then attach rope and winch. Try to winch out. Realise that it isn’t going to move just yet 
More digging. Then use digging spike to cut all the roots from underneath the stump.
. . . .sometime later, after more digging and winching. The stump is out.
As if digging a stump out wasn’t hard enough, there was this huge field stone underneath the stump as well. I’ll be off to the chiropractor tomorrow!
12
Feb 09
Back up top
I completed the electrics under the ground here a couple of weeks ago. This meant I could carry on and complete the covering with membrane and many, many, many wheelbarrows full of gravel. If you want to lose weight quickly I can recommend the wheelbarrow diet – it’s simple just take 50 barrows a day up a steep slope!! 
Every project like this needs a site manager 
24
Jan 09
Woodburnin’
As the house currently has no central heating, or heating at all for that matter, this was a job I have been really looking forward too. We’d looked around the net for stoves and found a nice contemporary model which would fit the existing opening in what will eventually become the kitchen snug.
Here’s the existing opening with stove drawn on for size and then stripped out:
The bigggest job of fitting this stove was to feed the flue pipe down through the existing chimney and into the fireplace. I had bruises on my shoulder for a week from this job:
You can see in the last picture the slate tiled hearth made for stove. Again a building regs requirement.
Finally a couple of pics of the stove installed and working. If you don’t have one of these you must get one. If we ever move house again this will be one of the first things we install!
18
Jan 09
Summer House electrics
So here’s the back level of the garden finally levelled out:
Next job is to cover this with membrane and then a lot of gravel (not looking forward to borrowing all that up the hill!!). Eventually there will be a Summer House/Workshop type building on this space. However before I can cover the ground I need to run the electrics in. So that involves some work in this corner:
In order to comply with current building regs garden electrics need to be buried quite deep in the ground. Hence this trench:
Having lined the bottom of the trench with pea shingle to help drainage it’s then time to run the conduit and armoured cables in the trench:
More pea shingle secures and protects the electrics:
Extra protection is provided by old paving slabs on top of the shingle:
Finally some warning tape goes on top of the slabs to warn any future diggers:
I now need to fill in the final trench with some earth and some more warning tape just below the surface. It’s a lot of work these days running garden cables!!
10
Jan 09
Totally stumped!
This is the first of a couple of stumps which need removing. Due to location it’s next to impossible to get any machinery near to drill them out.
Here’s a pic of the beginnings of a trench round the offending stump.
I had to dig this trench much deeper and then hack away the roots from below with a matock and digging spike. Finally it was winched out.
I was far to knackered after to take any pics. I’ll take some work in progress shot on the next stump
7
Jan 09
Sleeper wall part 2
New year, new wall.
If you read the earlier post on the back sleeper wall you’ll get the general idea. Dig some (deep 
) pis to take some upright sleepers, buried a 3rd of their length. Concrete sleepers into those and then bolt other sleepers onto the front. Simples! Not nice carrying all these up the garden slope though
Pic of part completed wall
Another angle. Here you can see a recess for steps – more pics of that to follow.
View to the back wall. Still some filling/levelling to do but getting there.
30
Jun 08
Roof off (or at least a bit of it!)
With the glazing a conservatory roof gone we had left an area which used to house the wet room and kitchen.
This needs to be completely demolished before we can begin any of the new build. The first area to go was the slate tiles on the roof. I was intending to save these but unfortunately those that aren’t broken or cracked are mostly shot. They simply crumble in the hand. Not a huge issue as there are no where near enough to cover what will be the new roof and the almost certainly would not tie in with the new slates in any case.
With slates gone the roof timbers were next. This wasn’t too tricky as these joists were not fixed at all well at the top and simply lifted away . . . .
Having taken off the roof joists there remained a very large supporting beam at the bottom of the roof structure to be removed. A small section of wall that seemed to be supporting this was doing no such thing. I’m still wondering how it was still standing – I barely touched and the whole thing fell down!
As with all these jobs you need some sort of supervision. . . . .
7
Jun 08
Beautiful floor revealed . . .
Just uncovered the floor in the old kitchen/wet rooom. As if the grey carpet wasn’t bad enough, we discovered this lovely lino underneath. Would you believe someone actually chose this!!
