for the shed!
With the pads and electrics complete I could finally gravel the area under the shed (more wheelbarrows up the slope 
)
It was a windy day, hence the stones holding the membrane down:
Gravel down:
Each pad gets some DPC in preparation for the base of the shed:
If you read the earlier post on Summer House electrics then you’ll already have the jist of this. Before this level could be finished and covered in gravel electrics need to be run in. I’ll let the pics explain:
No, not a new house but a series of concrete pads onto which a new shed will be built.
First get the ground roughly level:
I then dug 4 holes about 3 feet deep and filled with hardcore. On top of this I set some square formers:
Having got the formers level (which took some doing!!) I then filled each with concrete to create the finished pads:
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.
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”
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!
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 
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!
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!!
