Thursday 15 July 2010

Don’t weep Mr bricklayer…..

it’s only a little poorly constructed wall!

Stop two on the procrastination express is to build a little retaining wall for a raised bed.

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You’ve got to make an absolute mess first right?

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Laying strip foundations – the ground slopes so we had to make them split-level. Is that allowed in bricklaying? I have no idea!

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The first two courses, in total about 12 bricks, took two hours!

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And as it looks now, my good friend Elle came to help today and we built a lot more in less time. Ok so it’s not perfect but they are really old bricks – some were even found when the builders dug the foundation for the workshop. They were all shapes, sizes, colours and some were warped and cracked.

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You’ll notice the other end has a curve? I’ll take a photo of that when we’ve finished, if it passes muster. If not, I’ll be making judicious use of pots!

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Hopefully it will be finished tomorrow (if the rumours of a half day at work are correct) and then I can plant it up with the increasingly sad-looking plants that have been waiting in the greenhouse for weeks.

The shelves are coming for the workshop next week, as is the lady from the council’s planning office to decide whether we can teach from there (eep! Wish us luck)

We’re also taking our Victorian mangle to college to get it sympathetically converted to a slabroller. This is really important for us because we use a lot of clay slabs and it’s a backbreaking job rolling them by hand. A new slabroller can set you back £1500 so using an old mangle is not only eco-friendly it’s also vastly cheaper.

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted!

Beccy

2 comments:

  1. Good luck with the council planning office, the planter looks great. Did you have to waterproof the side thats made from the outside wall of the studio?

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  2. Hi Maggie,
    Good question! Because the planter is lower than the studio's internal floor we didn't have to worry about it. If it were higher we would have had to rethink our plans and some kind of waterproofing would have been in order!

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