The flat I have been living in for 17 years now is on the first floor (the first upper floor from the ground up, not the ground floor) of a semi-detached house. The two houses were built in 1953; Steve and I moved here in October 2003. The following year, the path around our house was redone; the original paving tiles were cracked in places, plus the owners of the other semi wanted to have their front garden paved over so that they could use it as a parking space for their cars. Back then, the paving wasn't done very expertly, and it showed.
My semi is owned by me (middle flat) and two brothers (downstairs and upstairs flats), the other semi is owned by one family. The three of us on our side got together earlier this autumn to discuss what to do: The paving had become bumpy and uneven over the past 16 years, and between the wall of the house and the rim of the paving, a gap had begun to form. So far, we'd been lucky in that we did not have all that much rain in recent years, but it was only a question of time before enough water would have seeped into that gap to make the foundation walls damp. If that happened, big works would become necessary - digging a trench around the walls, getting rid of the damp, making sure any water would be directed away from the walls, closing the trench and re-paving the path.
Before that happened, we decided to have the path repaved now, with a slight slope away from the walls and a seal between wall and pavement.
The two brothers got in touch with a few construction firms, we decided on one of their offers, and the work started on Friday, the 13th (we're not superstitious).
On the 12th, I took pictures to remember the "before", so that we would be able to compare it with the "after".
Here is our front door with the mail boxes and the cherry tree:
The side of the house:
Side of the house, looking the other way:
This is how far the workmen have come already on the afternoon of the 13th; back garden, looking down from my living room window:
I was at O.K.'s for the weekend and returned on Monday, the 16th, when I took the next picture. Not much seemed to have happened round the back, but if you look closely, you can tell that the path has been leveled in preparation for laying the stones:
Looking straight down from my Third Room on the 17th shows where the old stones meet the new ones, i.e. where our property begins and the other semi ends:
One day later, on the 18th, it looked like that around our front door:
Most days, there have been two or three men working. To my surprise, one man was there all day on Saturday, too. Shouldn't be more than a few days now before they wrap up the work. We're glad to have this done before winter sets fully in, with rain being more likely.
You'd be appalled by our cracked and peeling tarmac which we inherited from the previous owners more than 25 years ago - what you had to begin with would be a vast improvement - but the neighbours keep complaining it encroaches on to their side of the boundary so we haven't done anything, and it doesn't bother me really.
ReplyDeleteHere, the idea was originally to have the entire path repaved, not just our part of it. But when the owner of the other semi saw the company's quote, she withdrew from the plan.
DeleteA good idea to tackle a problem--especially one involving potential water damage--before it becomes a real (and much more expensive) headache. Looks like the workers are being methodical.
ReplyDeleteOur thoughts exactly, Mary. Yes, the workers have gone about it in a sensible way.
DeleteYou want "water problems"? Try flash flooding (through the ceiling) at midnight. Gushing it down. Biblical. It was amazing. The damage was awesome. The puddles deep. That I woke in time to employ some damage limitation was a miracle since asleep in the room not affected. My presence of mind what was worth rescuing, what wasn't, worthy of a medal from the fire brigade.
ReplyDeleteAnd before anyone mentions insurance - don't. Items destroyed that no money can buy back.
Still, good luck with your paving. May "damp" not creep up on you. Oh, yes, to alarm you further, and English readers will know what I am talking about, a spot of subsidence will keep you on your toes and your bank account bleeding.
Count yourself lucky,
U
Actually, I do not want water problems - or any other problems, if I can avoid them ;-)
DeleteFlash flooding through the ceiling?! How did that happen?
We just have the usual Gebäudebrandversicherung on this house, which is mandatory, I think.
I can not imagine what it must be like to lose everything that makes one's life materially, all the things that we use day to day and of course all the other things that we do not use or "need" but which have meaning for us on a different level, the embodiment of memories.
I know I am one of the lucky ones, in so many aspects of my life.
M
It looks great and you are all very wise to have that done now before more damage could be done by water. It must be helpful if you can all share the expenses too. I enjoy seeing your home and the area around it. You have some beautiful plants and trees as we've seen through your windows in other pictures! And now you can be at peace that any winter weather will not cause further damage!
ReplyDeleteWhenever something like that needs doing, we split the cost in three. I love the idea of having my own house (not just a flat/apartment) with O.K., but that would also come with all the responsibility (and the cost!) resting on our shoulders.
DeleteYes, it looks like the men can wrap up the work before the week is over, and then winter can come (if it has to...)!
Hope the workmen this time did a good job and that it will keep for many years onward! :)
ReplyDeleteThe work already looks much better than what was done previously. Back then, I didn't really have a say in it, and the two brothers, my co-owners, had it all done "privately" (you know what I mean).
DeleteLoveliest of trees, the cherry now
ReplyDeleteIs hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again ...
George Butterworth set Housman's poem to music.
I just listened to it being sung by Eduardo Ciampi, thinking of your garden cherry tree.
*The Loveliest of Trees*: YouTube.
That cherry tree, now all black and leaveless, will come alive in a few months. When it is in bloom, walking into my kitchen is like coming towards a fluffy white cloud of blossoms. When the leaves are green, they make the outdoors feel so much closer. As soon as the cherries are ripe, I start picking them directly from my windows. In autumn, the yellow leaves light up the entire room. It really is the loveliest of trees.
Delete*In autumn, the yellow leaves light up the entire room.*
ReplyDeleteNow that is the loveliest of images.
You know you are in a beautiful home when the garden comes right into the lounge.
Christmas is enchanting because the fir tree is given a home inside the house, and decorated with lights and baubles.
We have the Celtic people to thank for the magical green tree.
Them, and Prince Albert!
DeleteOf course, Prince Albert!
DeleteNow I want to see the movie, Young Victoria.
I like the Albert Monument in London as well as Victorian architecture of which Glasgow has a few gems.
Every Xmas I go for walks in the evening, looking for Christmas trees that stand out, or don't, since an underdressed sparse little tree can look poignant.
Lights come in every radiance, blue lights are haunting.
I like ghost stories with a Christmas scene and Hans Anderson wrote a great Xmas tree story.
One can not help but wonder what Albert would have achieved, had he lived longer. He was so interested in the world around him, he really wanted to leave his mark on it in a positive way.
DeleteI like looking at how people have decorated their places, too. It is made easier when one is out in the dark and their homes are lit up.
Albert was a man mourned by the British people. Victoria certainly did judging by the elaborate monument she had constructed for him.
DeleteI am fairly indifferent to the aristocracy; Scotland's aristocracy never did anything for us, but I have never aligned myself with republicans in Britain, for constitutional reasons.
America's wish to be free of European aristocracy always moves me. Washington could have been crowned if he had wanted it, but he steadfastly refused. When Jefferson heard they wanted to make Washington king, he is supposed to have said, *I am of the opinion that he hesitated* - or something like that. There was a strange rivalry between these two Virginians.
I walked the streets of west Glasgow last year, trying to find a Christmas tree for a ghost story I have been working on. Walking fairly quickly I passed a lot of windows. Finally I I found the right one.
There has to be some factor in the main character's life before the haunting occurred. Either they have been mortally ill and recovered, or there has been some weird incident in their life, or they are far too sure of themselves - hubris.
I think my theme is hell and the fact that every believer (unless they are universalists) has cognitive dissonance about it. The American reformed theologian R.C. Sproul said, not long before his death, that he still struggled with hell.
John Bunyan wrote a book, *The Death of Mr. Badman*, which closes in the most terrible way. Bunyan like Augustine thought most of humanity was damned.
Bunyan's 1680 book is properly titled, *The Life and Death of Mr. Badman; Presented to the World in a Familiar Dialogue Between Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Attentive*.
DeleteMy Hesperus edition is a durable paperback with foldback covers: the cover artwork is a photograph of a bluebottle.
Bunyan's style prose is suggestive yet spare, no ornamentation. I read *Pilgrim's Progress* in an abridged and illustrated edition when I was six: odd that I read it in a Catholic school, when you think that Bunyan loathed Popery.
Before his conversion Bunyan writes how he envied the crows in the field because they have no immortal soul to worry about. This is in *Grace Abounding*.
Like Luther before his discovery of Paul's Letter to the Romans, Bunyan was a conflicted man before he found peace.
I think everything has been said. A stitch in time saves nine.
ReplyDeleteExactly our reasoning, Graham.
Delete