Re-Building the Walls: A Slight Intermission.

Next up, as mentioned on the previous post, was re-building the retaining walls for the tree area and the drive. Bricks ordered and delivered. Great.

Here are a few pallates of bricks ready to go:

How interesting are bricks? Pallets of them ready to be used to good effect. These bricks are "self weathering" for want of a better phrase; they will attain a patina and do not require painting. The alternative plain brick would require regular painting to look smart. These can be pressure washed if a clean look is required.

So, some preliminary work was undertaken - arranging the metalwork reinforcement and digging a footing..

There we was, digging a hole - back breaking work when done by hand. As one individual was to find out...

.....then the labourer did his back in! Looking at the amount of graft required, actually, I'm not surprised... then the foreman got the flu. Bless them both. No work, no pay, so they will be suffering in more ways than one.

Another stack of expectant bricks - this image shows the finish better. Bricks; brilliant. Get some growth of vines on them and they won't look so stark.

The long and short of it is that work came to a grinding halt after one day on site. Let's hope they both get back to fitness soon and work can start again. My project manager is concerned about the drive and how it has collapsed since the caterpillar digger damaged next door's wall, so the priority is to get that made good, wall rebuilt and drive re-instated to good condition. It goes without saying that until this is fixed heavy lorries can not navigate down to the building area.

So, until the drive can be fixed-up we are at a little bit of an impasse. Also, we are still waiting on the builders certificate and some other paperwork before the foundations can be started. In Portugal, planning permission alone is not sufficient; a builders certificate is required before work can start, (a matter of form for an established contractor really) and other legal requirements need to be met regarding house efficiency and waste water disposal amongst other considerations.

Meanwhile, I had some good news from Soren, who had driven past my plot and took a couple of photos for me. What a star. Here are the pictures he took:

The raised tree area - imagine this with some steps leading up to it. Despite the thinning out of the trees, it still looks great for that upstairs picnic area. Once a few bushes are planted and established it will be lovely again. Nature is rampant here, so it will all look softened in a little time.

Soren took this shot from the drive, looking towards the sea between Pico, right and S. Jorge on the left. A nice place to park the car. Now you know what an acre looks like :)

To keep myself going and feeling positive, I've got a couple more pics of Soren's house, taken from his Facebook page... I dream on....

Bear in mind the design of my house is very similar to Soren's - by the way, like the Landy Soren!

Ah, a man after my own heart... bottle of wine at the ready, gorgeous sunset in progress. I can imagine being there now...

I can see your house from here! I like this photo of Soren's house, from a distance. You can see his splendid elevation, the beautiful countryside and the low density housing in the area. Needs sunshine... actually though, that's what is great about the Azores; it is not a barren wasteland that is heavy baked. It is just right.

So that's it for this post... we await the recovery of the wall building crew (get well soon guys) and the required builders certificate; hopefully as soon as the drive is stable then foundations can begin! Watch this space.

Next Up: Onwards!