belt up

I've finally put the belt (ceinture) up round the top of the block house.

It was an exceptionally hot day when the shuttering went up, and when we poured the concrete. The shuttering contains reinforcing bars (at last, a way to get rid of the extra metals left over from building the barn), and there is also special square reinforcing down the corners to help hold them together. Personally I think cement works pretty well by itself.



Assembling the shuttering took at least as long as mixing the concrete and tipping it in, and although shuttering always looks very Heath Robinson, the finished result is usually surprisingly good:



In the top right hand corner it's just possible to see the reinforcing bars for the corner - they will have to be cut off flush with the surface when the concrete is a little harder. And in the top left hand corner is that useful standby, the scrunched-up cement bag, used to plug a hole where getting a bit of wood in just wasn't possible.

Next, the rafters and boarding it out.

the end is in sight

mine, possibly. But the wall is now almost finished. There's a little more pointing needed on the left, and some repairs to the plinths under the wooden pillars, and some work inside (when I succeed in removing the 200 concrete blocks stored there), but that's just about it.



The two door pillars are the same size, and the plinths they stand on are the same too, and are level with each other. It's odd that it doesn't look like it.

The new wall is definitely an improvement on this:



It's been back-breaking work, so I'm pleased it's about over. And I quite like the result, which - although far from professional - is good enough to pass.

going up

The wall has taken quite a while to get to where it is now, which I imagine has something to do with the extremely hot weather we've been having. The pool has reached 30 degrees, unheated, and that's definitely a sign that it's summer.

It's been a bit of a slog, and some of the stones have been a bit heavier than I can really manage, but it doesn't need much more now. Just that top left hand corner:



It's reassuring to think that now there is something more holding up this edge of the concrete slab - or at least, there will be when the mortar hardens up a bit. Before it was relying on the reinforcing rods in the concrete - inch-thick rods, it's true, but just the same supporting the slab at the edge must be a good idea.

I don't think I've got quite enough of the lime to both finish the top row and do all the repointing, so it'll be another visit to Chausson on Tuesday