Currently we’re trying to prepare the ground floor for a concrete pour. It’s probably too cold for a concrete pour at the moment, plus we need to get the plumbing roughed in before that happens but at least that will give us a bit of breathing space to save up for it.
The time lapse is pretty boring I know, we were trying to remove all the high spots with a laser level (unfortunately you can’t see it in the video as it makes the soil look like little chunks of burning charcoal), possible we’ll have to remove more earth but we’ll wait until we hire someone. We’re trying to do as much as possible ourselves to keep costs down.
We’re not sure what to do with the staircase, I’m tempted to pull it off and have a new one built which we’ll either do ourselves or pay someone. We would keep the banister rail and as many of the spindles/balusters as possible. It would definitely be easier for the pour if the stairs weren’t there. I’ll probably ask our friends Derrick and Giovanna for some advice on the stairs.
After we finished we had about an hour before it got dark so we got out the ladders and started trimming the trees. We only have a Bahco bow saw (which I love by the way), so it does take a while. I did order a larger Bahco bow saw but we couldn’t find it. Some of the limbs we want to remove are about 12″ in diameter so it may be a long slog, but we’ll keep nibbling away at it. We will do a nice job trimming the trees, such that they still look elegant and balanced.
I don’t envy you having to work outside at this time of year.
It wasn’t too bad this weekend as it was about 44F/6C. In fact sometimes it’s colder inside the house than it is outside, brrrrrrr.