Mission 1 - All Work No Play for some

All Play No Work for others

Mission 1 - Base & Side Walls

Minecrafting
25th May 2014

I have built stuff before. Fiddly. Intricate. Detailed.

Not this. Just threw it down. Easy.
Groundsheet. Easy.
Bales. Easy.
Polystyrene base. Easy.
Minecraft style. I take a straw block and place it. Take a straw block. Place it. Take a polystyrene block. place it.
(In the meantime, my boys arrive and decide to build the largest tower they can with the remaining bales.)

First layer

Second & third layers

Ended up with couple of extra polystyrene sheets so decided to use as extra side wall insulation.

Then I needed a touch of muscle with the tree stakes. Well the 10lb sledge helped. Tip: Do this early on a Sunday morning to have the best effect on your neighbours. Mix in a few curses for good measure even if you don't swing and miss and connect with your shin/toe/etc.

Stake & chips

Showing groundsheet turned up to prevent groundwater seeping into bales.
(My judgement here is that I should have allowed for a bigger ground sheet - an extra 3ft in both directions)

Then on cue it rained to test my concern for me. Enter builders damp proof membrane stage right plus another bigger polysheet (one I should have used for base!!!!)

Rain stops play.
(The grass down by the trampoline is new turf laid on the top soil. At least something likes the rain.) 

Only built up 3 sides to allow for the typical May weather - burnt to a crisp or drowning

Outcome is that I need a small drainage channel at the bottom end to help take water away. Just dug a channel for now. Maybe a half drainpipe and a few rocks will be enough.

Plywood next - when the rain stops. (It rained a lot. Good job I left a wall out.)

Mission 1 - Buying Stuff

Bits & Pieces
16-24th May 2014

Bales
Found a great source of straw bales near(ish) to work. Super friendly farmer even lent me a trailer to transport the bales (I think he thought a was a little mad and took pity on my tiny trailer that my Dad made back in the 70's). £2.50 each. Good tight bales. Sunny weather. Little help from big Gaz. 3 trips. Sorted.

Bales - under wraps

Polystyrene Sheets for base
Got a good deal on some 8x4 sheets of polystyrene. When delivered found out they were the posh foil coated variety which means they were a superb deal ;-)

Pinning the bales
Decided to use wooden stakes (trying to eco balance the use of polystyrene) instead of steel rebar. 32 off 50mm 1.5m tree stakes.

Drainage
As I am effectively below ground level, I have got a ton of sand (lucky to have a local sand and gravel quarry) for £20. Hoping that will give any ground water somewhere to run through rather than standing under the pool. Covering the sand with groundsheet to keep the bales dry from rising damp. It will do for this mission but think a better solution needed for a more permanent installation.

Levelled & raked

A little help from my not so little girl

Ready to build

Mission 1 - The Plan

Mission 1 - Mini-Excavator

A Tight Squeeze
13th May 2014

Shed moved (intact, in one piece). Those pyramid builders could have learnt a few lessons from my 11 year old son. I lift - he pushes.

Hired a mini-digger for levelling off the ground. Of course I could have dug out by hand but its hard compact clay soil and stones and being honest they always looked good fun to play with.

First problem was the passageway......

Tight fit

Cripes. It was tight.

But it got it through - only took a hour. Clock ticking - as only had the digger for a day. Tick, tick, tick.

Least the wife got the passageway tidied (only took me about 4 years since she asked).

Tip 1: Don't repaint the floor before driving a digger over it.

Tip 2: Ask how the digger works before driving it away or at least ask for the manual.

Lets get ready to rumble

So time to dig out. Thankfully the rain had stopped so cracked on. Plan was to move to the top soil to bottom of garden and level off one side leaving the veggie/fruit patch at a lower level.

Dig, scoop, dig, scoop, jump off, barrow, tip, return. Two scoops, jump off, etc. Ad infinium.

Honesty moment: More like scoop, knock barrow over, curse, jump off, pick up barrow, hand shovel spilt soil back in, curse, scoop, etc.



Level patch (bottom right) is where small tomato greenhouse (previous mission from years ago) stood. Idea is to bring area down level with this. About 2ft in far top left corner down to about 1ft bottom left and top right.

Levelling the Land

Why does soil expand upon contact with a shovel? You calculate a few cubic meters and end up with 5 times that.....

Levelled

Ground finally levelled. Digger back without mishap.

Note to self: Buy a bigger car. Was a little tail happy towing.... whoops. And my acceleration time was 0-40mph in about 3 minutes. 1.5 litres of pure French diesel delight with a light garnish of turbo was not really up to the job.

The Spoil - a touch high but hoping it will sink.

Mission 1 - The Pool

A Splish, A Splash, A Great Big Bath

Decided to make a pool in the garden. No reason. Laws of Physics dictates it will not be large. More bucket than Olympic size. Swimming

Guidelines:

1. Don't flood the neighbours garden
2. Use as many natural materials as possible
3. Heated if possible
4. Exercise pool - swim tether and/or endless 
5. Must have floating beer can holder
6. Good value (or cheap as others rudely call it)

Rough Plan:

• Pondered for minutes before deciding to make the pool from straw bales with a pond liner.
• Why bales? Cheap construction material, good insulator. Choice between hay & straw based mainly on cost. Straw bales £2.50 each, hay was £3.50. Sure both can be used. My only worry was that hay would attract more (hungry) rodent-like animals and end up nibbling the liner :-(
• Liner. Look at heavy duty polythene.
• Insulated base to prevent heat loss. Polystyrene sheets of some form.
• Pin through the bales to strengthen the structure.
• Need filter and heating to sort out.
• Need to flatten off area in garden. We have a gently sloping every-which-way garden. Also if the pool doesn't work out I can simply drag it off and turf the area to make a sheltered sun trap. Using straw gives me the option of making a burnable pool.... self heating pool... well for a few minutes at least.
• Move shed (again)
• Demolish tomato greenhouse (as not really used any more). Before you get too upset the greenhouse was made of the double glazed window that I removed when putting the conservatory up along with second hand wood and boards - cost more in nails than materials.  Point of note: Why doesn't the local rubbish tip have somewhere for recycling glass windows? Bottles no problem. Not windows though. Straight to land fill is just wrong.

Intro

Mid-Life

Kids growing up, never ending mortgage, diesel car, love handles, balding, wrinkles, 20+ year old clothes (though they still fit mind you ;-)

Not really a mid-life crisis, more a realisation that if I don't get on with it soon - it will have passed me by.... so was born my Mid-Life Missions.

I will attempt to document a few of these missions as I go. You never know, it may spur a couple of you to have a go at similar things yourself.

Ground rules are simple:

1. Never pass a skip without glancing in.
2. Never pay for something that you can do yourself.
3. Sometimes "good enough" is OK. Other times it isn't.
4. Graft. (British slang: to work hard, usually physically, for long periods). The finest trait a human being can possess.

Hoppy