Week 3, day thirteen

Thursday, 10 February 2011

First retaining walls

Exciting day today, all the more so because we didn't really see the final result until all was said and done and the brickies had left the site. We have bricks on footings! Just two retaining walls for the slab to be poured into, really, but I can't tell you how weirdly thrilling it was to see real bricks mortared together where the house one day will stand. They looked so nice and straight and strong too, just like bricks ought to. How DO they do it?

Little bit of a hiccup in the builder-client working relationship yesterday when I overstepped my mark - bound to happen sometime soon, I guess. Warwick had told us that the brickies would be there Wednesday; Jem and I were carless that day so were basically hanging out at home in between walking up to school and back again, so I couldn't help but notice that by midday those long-awaited brickies still hadn't made an appearance. I restrained myself for several hours, then thought I'd drop Warwick a quick, helpful text to check in that their no-show was expected (I knew he was busy working on a house down the road, trying to get the roof watertight). Within about four seconds he'd called me back with the basic message (relayed as politely as he could mange through gritted teeth): pull your head in and let your builder get on with it! Clearly,NOT helpful. I think annoying might have been the correct adjective. Okeydokes, I knew there was a line there somewhere and now I've found it...


So today I stayed well away until all tradies were long gone, hence the surprise walls. I still really like our bricks too, thank goodness - they're cheaper than the fancy ones, but they're dry press (so don't have those 'extruded' brick holes in the middle), with nice smooth sides and sharp edges. They're also a 'commons' brick (so no colour guarantees, hence the comparative cheapness), but for some reason we liked them almost as much as anything twice the price. Maybe it's our basic fondness for anything used and unloved over something new and fancy! Being thrifty (I was going to say 'cheap') comes in handy on a budget.


Still waiting for that de-stumper, and Mr Bobcat, but I won't be saying a word...