The Hole in the Ground

When I did the first blog I forgot to mention the 2 little posts that can be seen which define the front of the Situation room. Things have now moved along at a rate of knots.

The next picture shows Anne, spade in hand, digging out the first sod. I thought it poignant that Anne got this acknowledgement as she is what keeps me driven to complete the project.

Once the digging started, the hole in the ground developed quite quickly. A 3 ton excavator was used and the whole area was dug ready for foundations withing a day. The next picture shows the excavator and the dumper truck that also squashed the grass on the lawn, but that can't be helped!

The rate of development was indeed quick. One minute there was a scraped area, then a sort of hole and then the foundations were all dug and ready.

At this point the foundations are ready for concrete. In the centre of the new building base there is a device for setting the whole base square and also level. Its hard to see, but the difference in height from the front left corner to the rear right corner is the best part of a metre. The next pic shows the support wall on top of the foundations.

It was about this point when I went completely potty and ordered the first figures, just 32,000 10mm Napoleonic troops. After doing this, I had a little lay down and allowed the guys to continue work. The next pic shows all the walls complete, then filled with 30 tons of hardcore and finished with a layer of sand.

The whole process reminded me of baking a cake when you pour the mix from the bowl to the cooking tin. No idea why! The pole you see, front and centre, is where the mains power cable will come in. From this position, it took only two more days to complete the base. The next stage was to lay a damp proof course which consists of polythene type sheets and took about 10 minutes. The whole of the area inside the bricks then had steel reinforcing mesh laid and then the concrete was brought in by dumper truck. The last pic shows the nearly finished result.

Believe it or not, the very last job which took a day, on and off, is to polish the concrete. I never even new that you polished concrete, yet more things that I have learnt.

So, there we are, the base is drying slowly and the building is due to come on the week beginning 27th Sept. It will be erected in a day! After erection there are some detailed mods that I an having done, all to do with ensuring the building is weather tight. I don't think I mentioned the actual building, it will be made from sectional concrete with my purpose made mods (not all decided yet either).

Figures should also star to arrive by November and the whole process for the figures will take at least 18 months. And that's the first order!!!!

I'll post more when the building arrives.