Liz & Matt’s Home Extension Blog

After a long bank holiday weekend getting used to the new layout and rescuing some garden plants from imminent destruction, the project kicked back in with a vengeance this morning with the arrival of the THE DIGGER - which turned up soon after the promised arrival time of 7.30.  The kids were up early in honour of the occasion and Sarah decided that the initials ought to be JBD rather than JCB (for “Jeff’s Big Digger”).  They immediately started work scraping away the top layers of soil and making a mess of the drive way and front lawn.  We all had an excellent view of the action through the kitchen window over breakfast - which was a bit weird, since there was a room there less than a week ago.



By the end of the day almost all of the footings had been excavated and several lorry loads of soil removed.  There was a brief moment of excitement when the digger unexpectedly came across the water main, which just about survived the experience.  There is just a little more to finish off tomorrow and the concrete should be going in on Thursday.



I stayed at home today to keep an eye on things and to do some more research into alternative water systems.  The basic idea is to install an underground storage tank for either rainwater (harvested from the roof) or “grey water” (reused bath & shower water) for toilet flushing, which accounts for about one third of domestic usage.  Rain water can also be used for the washing machine, dish washer, garden tap and car washing - pretty much anything except for drinking water (although this too is possible with the right treatment).  It does seem fairly crazy going through all that expensive water treatment to make the water drinkable and transporting it for miles from the nearest reservoir, only to flush it down the toilet.  Plus, once we switch to a water meter, we might even save ourselves some money.

I have also added some pictures to the previous entries today, plus the first two installments of the photo gallery and copies of the house plans, as submitted to the district council.

Matt