Finishing the terrace

Wow, it's been a while!

We did finish the terrace this summer. The most involved thing was to build the brick wall (it was Pim's first) and apply the grout (a laborious three man job: Pim, his dad and me). We chose a sand toned grout.

Putting on the floor was easier. Pim had already pre-prepared the substrate with garden earth and cement some time ago, and the rain and people walking over it for months hardened it considerably. Several centimetres of "river" sand (it appeared to be washed beach sand, with lots of shells in it!), packed well with a plate compactor we rented, a layer of bricks (I really enjoyed this fun and quick job!), some more sand and compacting, and it's done :) the most laborious part of this process was to cut the bricks around the angled edges, which Pim did with an angle grinder.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

More terrace

Some progress on the terrace:

First placing concrete L slabs to act as retainer wall for the soil beyond.

As level as possible. These things weigh 65 kg each.

Starting the brick wall, the first row is the most difficult.

Overnight, a cat will always come to your fresh concrete and walk over it.
This one however tap danced on it :D

More layers go faster.

Here come some stairs.

Garden

We haven't been working in the house for a while now. Taking advantage of longer days (although it's been pouring like crazy this spring), we've been working outside. The terrace is coming along.

Soil-cement as a base for concrete Ls to hold the ground

A cat left an imprint overnight

As matters stand today

Meanwhile, further back in the garden, I'm working on some paths,
using the same bricks that we will use on the terrace

May 2014, May 2016

Facebook prompted before & after, two years and two days:

The hillbilly roof protected our tomato crop for two years

Digging

Pim's been digging out the terrace. It's a lot to dig...

Today Pim's dad has also removed the add-on to the corner of the back building. We think that was there just to attach a door that is now long gone, we also found some evidence in the rubble (lots of rubble! this space was used as a dump) in the ground that Pim dug out. It wasn't really supporting anything. He then started reconstructing the corner.

Not kidding about the rubble, and this is only a fraction

Pim's also now trying different configurations for the stairs leading to the upper level. We of course make drawings, and plans in sketchup and stuff, but there's nothing like seeing it in place and going up the steps.