THE STORY SO FAR

31 January/ 1 February – Had the builder round to mark out the footings and got started digging the foundations and footings. Brilliant! We discovered trees stumps and roots just below the surface which took ages to remove and then on Sunday the heavens opened and we got lots of snow which curtailed progress – well actually it got us into the house by a warm fire. Still we managed to get 3 big bags of soil dug out and. That’s about 3 cubic metres and I think we only need about 5 cubic metres out.

7 & 8 February – Nice days apart from the frost so a bit hard digging to start with! Still got on really well – almost 6 big (1 cubic yard) bags of soil now removed Early Sunday afternoon we decided it looked like we’re getting there so asked the builder to come round and have a look. BAD NEWS Seems we need to go down at least another foot and more in places– possibly as much soil as we’ve already moved to still dig out and we’re running out of room with all the soil we’ve already moved plus backs and muscles are beginning to ache!

Quick re-think needed here and we decide to let the builder finish the digging out (and disposal of the rest of the soil). Only going to cost about an £250 but I think it’ll be worth it.

FIRST LESSON. I totally underestimated the amount of soil which needed to be removed. I’ve now got to move the bags of soil to get the mini digger in.
I would advise anyone not to underestimate the task of digging the footings