The Build - Wk 1

Soon after New Year, our neighbour, Ray Green, arrived on site with his digger, dozer and his truck.  First thing to go was the lovely acacia tree, which although not indigenous to the area, was a landmark for where we would build and a tree planted years ago next to the original timber house.

Even though the site only needed to be levelled by 1.4mtrs from one adjacent corner to the other, it seemed like we needed to move a lot of dirt.  With the sloping hill behind the house site and to provide drainage from the springs up the hill, Ray cut deeper into the side of the hill to allow for all of this.  At the same time that Ray was cutting in, Graeme decided to hand pick any appropriate large rocks out of the excavation to be used towards our feature rock wall in the living area.  He found some wonderful flagstones amongst it all.  Also, Graeme set to work in slashing any thistles around the site…of which there were plenty.