Monday, 09.09.2007

Well, nothing happens for weeks and then it is all go at once.

Just a couple of weeks ago we took possesion of 14 pallets of paving stones and a pile of fine crushed rock.

The paving stones cover an area of about 115 square metres which is over double what we layed ourselves round the back. So this job required a few reinforcements. We got a bit of slightly more professional help (people who actually know what they are doing!) this time. And with our assistance and Pia’s parents, Lea and Risto, helping we had a newly laid front yard in one weekend.

Nice little toy!

Risto brought his truck down as well along with a little tractor. The tractor alone saved hours of work leveling the gravel and having the truck with the hoist meant we didn’t have to carry the paving stones from one side of the yard to the other.

Quite a lot done already.

The weather didn’t entirely cooperate during the weekend, but it was possible to do some work under shelter during the worst of it.

Hard at work and out of the rain.   Finished at last!

While the truck was here we also replaced the drainage pipe under the driveway. The old one was crushed by all the traffic when the house was built. So Risto got us a new reinforced one that should survive better. Since the truck hoist also has a digging attachment it took just a short while to replace it.

All said, everything went pretty smoothly, thanks to everyone involved. If only we could get everything else done so quickly…

If only it went this quickly.

Speaking of which, last week we got 10 cubic metres of surfacing to finish off the rest of the driveway. The material we are using for the driveway area is a byproduct of rock crushing, kivituhka. Probably the best translation is rock dust. It is fine clingy material that packs down quite hard. We got a dark colour, dark grey, almost charcol. It does lighten quite a lot when dry though. Anyway, with another couple of helpers more and many, many, many wheelbarrows full later we spread most of it around. Unfortunately it still needs compacted and leveled off properly. But first we are going to get some more bricks and lay them around the edges of the gardens and driveway. Then once that is done we can spread the last of the around the edges and rent a compactor for the weekend.

Quite a few more wheelbarrows to go.