I've got wood!

You might remember the sort of wood-sticking-out-of-the-ground thing I had going on from the last bit of concreting. Looked like this:

And then I started to make the actual decking. Given the overall haphazard nature of using oak sleepers cut in half and chucked in some holes and pouring in concrete, getting everything square and level was going to be a bit of a faff. That car jack you can see in the below is actually a precision lifting device, enabling very accurate setting of level:

Basically I worked out that making a square of the timber that I was using, and then making all the joists meet that, rather than trying to do it the other way around was the way forward:

And this is where we are today - there is actually bits of decking on top of the frame!

The timber is all treated, an as it's above the ground, it shouldn't rot from underneath, but the sun will really go to town on the topside. In any case, my assistant put a coat of preservative covering on the underside:

There's a fair bit more to do on the decking, but I'm pretty pleased that we are where we are with it - at least there's no more lugging of heavy timber about (joists are 8 x 2's at 4.8m long). The adding the decking on top is a bit monotonous though.

The kids zip wire thing is coming on. It also started as a few bits of oak sleeper sticking out of the ground:

The above is the 'landing zone'. Or the 'other end' of the zip wire. The launching pad is the bits of wood sticking out of the ground to the left of the jetty:

Making the landing zone. In my last post, I showed this pic:

Which is the cross beam for the zip wire. The wire goes through the middle of the beam, and it's this that holds the whole lot up. The two things bolted to the back are where the diagonal supports will go from. They'll go from there down to the the bits of oak sticking out of the ground. Of course, it's very heavy, so trying to lug it up to about 2.6M height would be pretty hard. So a bit of ingenuity and a crappy old Jeep Cherokee, plus a willing father-in-law gives us:

 And with the various bits cut off etc. The arch is supposed to be sort of lopsided - it is a design feature - honest:

The launch pad is basically a 3 storey tower. It's about 4m from ground height. This is it going up: The bracing is necessary to stop it wobbling all over the place:

The floors are 4x2's with decking on top.

Here it is with the actual wire attached to the tree- you should be able to make out the line a further 2m higher than the platform itself.

 And down it goes to the landing zone:

There's a load more work to do on the safety railing, and the recovery system for the zip wire trolley. That yellow cord you can see will recover it back to the platform, but it's a not very elegant solution. It's also the case the zip wire is very fast. A better recovery system will involve some more pulleys which will hopefully add a little bit of a braking effect.

I've bought a few tools along the way which enables me to make this stuff. Here's a little view of the (one of) the workshops:

I've also started to accumulate the necessary materials for the new outside office:

So, still plenty more work to go....

Doing stuff outside....

We left last time with the chimney issues. We needed to get on with that, so off we went:

One down....

Onto the next one....

Finished article. Well, not exactly finished - a decent coat of paint etc....

We also decided that we needed a garden wall. There was a fence, but our intention was always to change the way the house was accessed - the garden gate was just on the road, meaning that people stopped on the road and chewed up the verge. And it was a bit dangerous too.

So the house used to look something like this:

Which doesn't look so bad, I suppose. Other than the pics are estate agents ones, taken on a fine day in May.

Now we've demolished the fence, and put in the footings for the new garden wall. The chimneys have gone, and you'll also note that the porch has changed also, with a brick bottom half.

It doesn't help that this is a shot taken in winter, and after we've driven a digger all over the front garden. Never the less, you get the idea that the profile of the house has changed a bit with the removal of the chimneys.

House looks kind of small face on.

We've also been messing about outside a fair bit. I decided to use the shelter as a chippie's workshop, and to that end decided that the far end could do with a bit more shelter:

... and a bit more sunshine! Anyway, this keeps the wind and rain out much better. Needs a lick of paint now.

Small update to outside loo door.

More wood. More carpentry...

More building stuff, A luxury chicken apartment.

Another shed extension. This pic is it sort of half-finished:

Has doors and the other side now - needs painting!

My air compressor is currently in the workshop near the house. It takes up a ton of space, and it's not even wired up. Annoying. I don't want it cluttering up the garage, so it's going to live in its own little shelter on the back of the garage. I've also left a bit of room in designing it to put other odds and sods:

The ends will be covered in mesh, like the chicken house. The compressor needs air around it to keep it cool. The 'lid' will be felted.

The greenhouse is being fixed. Some idiot (me) drove a digger through the back of it. And in moving the greenhouse from near the house to where it is now, a few more panes were broken. It needs a good clean up and replacement glass. I'll actually use perspex instead of glass.

Also been busy building a zip wire for the kids. It will have a sort of treehouse at one end, and the usual kid of stopping device at the other. These pics just really show the foundations. The treehouse thing won't be directly built on/in a tree. More like next to it. The sleepers are oak - they're just cut in half, and set in concrete. They are in there solid!

This is the other end - the sort of arch here will be the stopping end....

This solid looking effort is where the cable will terminate. Probably hard to envision, but more pics after more progress...

Used the same sleepers for a raised bed - my daughter was insistent we had a veggie patch. So we have one now:

This is the same idea as the zip wire going to have a deck that goes out on a cantilever over the pond.

This is the pad for the new outside office. I am supposed to work 2 days a week from home. My wife, who's in the same line of work as me, is supposed also to work from home. However, we only have one office in the house, so....

Small amount of painting means that garage part of the building under the cat slide roof is smartened up. Need to clean the cars now...

Starting to green up again for spring - can see the work the tree surgeon did here.