My man cave build - UK edition

[luke.jenner]

One of the most awesome threads on Pelican! Love the build and can’t wait to see what the layout looks like inside! My updates?

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Superman and luke, thanks for the comments, very much appreciated

Apologies for lack of posts but it's been a bit full on since my last update. My hernia op/recovery couldn't have gone better but this paled into insignificance a week later when our youngest was admitted into hospital for brain surgery

Modern medicine is indeed a miracle , Pleased to report all is good and everything is back to normal, hopefully our new normal will stay boring!

Over the last few weekends on the rare occasion when it hasn't rained continuously all day Mrs Ahab and I have direct our energy towards our build.

Progress on the house part has halted as our builder is now waiting for me to dig and pour a small footing so he can build a garage opening pillar.

To give ourselves a much needed rest from building work we've decided to spend time giving our garden some much needed love so we can hopefully enjoy it next summer.

At the beginning it looked like this


After lots of overflow dumping of building material it looked like this


After moving off the tons and tons of walling/building stone that we could physically lift ourselves, lots of weeding and a small start on the levelling it now looks like this


I'm waiting for delivery of a heavy duty sack truck which should make light work of moving the bigger 100-200lb stones and then let the lawn levelling begin!

[tcar]

What is a 'sack truck' in US English, please?

Edit: nevermind, I think we call it a Dolly or Hand Truck...


Beautiful job, Cap'n.

Glad the medical stuff worked out OK.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by tcar

What is a 'sack truck' in US English, please?

Edit: nevermind, I think we call it a Dolly or Hand Truck...


Beautiful job, Cap'n.

Glad the medical stuff worked out OK.

thanks tcar, a UK sack truck is one of these......

[astrochex]

Captain, thoughts for full and rapid recovery for you and your child.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by astrochex

Captain, thoughts for full and rapid recovery for you and your child.

thanks, astrochex

we are all well now and Mrs Ahab is our rock!

[Racerbvd]

Hoping for a rapid recovery sir, very much enjoying your thread.

[rfuerst911sc]

Captain you take care of yourself and your family , the construction can wait . It really looks great .

[tevake]

Those pics of the yard really show what a monumental effort your project has been.

I love the look of the back side of the building, the dormer window structure tying into the break in the wall add nice character to that side.

The window and skylights bring so much light inside too.

So glad to hear that you and your son are fixed up and on the mend!

Congrats on the win with Jag!

Cheers Richard

[Superman]

Still grateful for including us in your personal community and now, wishing you just what you said. A boring new normal. Very glad to hear of your offspring's recovery and prognosis.

I would say that virtually every picture of your project has "hernia" written all over it. If we get a chance to meet, I won't arm wrestle with you.

Yes, a proper garden. With a place this size, some might have used the space differently. I applaud your decision, Sir.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

thanks for the kind wishes and pleased to say all is boring, long may it continue

Superman, would love to know how some might have used the space differently

Mrs Ahab and I have managed to spend a few weekend afternoons gardening

Finished moving the large stone pieces, was going well until my dolly couldn't handle our work rate, meant to be rated for 200kgs/440kgs but one wheel is buckled and a tyre blew, wished I'd spent more than $50 My wheel barrow is just about worn out too, will make sure this time I buy best

First job was a rough level, wheel barrowed tons of soil towards the lowest end of the garden at the far left hand corner. Thought we might have way too much soil, now thinking we might just have enough



Dug up the whole area up by hand with a garden spade, digging by hand is good for the soul but damn it's hard work. Needed to loosen up the ground to make raking easier and to get some air into the soil, will add some fertilizer closer to when we turf

Then lots of raking, picking out stones and tons more shoveling of soil to level up the ground by eye



My latest gadget is a rotary laser level, not sure how I managed to get through life without one. Works great, can cover the whole garden but just not powerful enough to use in full daylight. A quick check this evening and it's all pretty good, within an inch or so of being flat which will do for now.



My weeding stool is a late 90's forged magnesium BBS Benetton F1 rear wheel , was my garden hose reel but also makes a comfy perch to sit on



Mrs Ahab is nearly finished the boundary wall stonework, had to lift up the working platform for her as she couldn't reach the top



If anyone has any top turfing tips they'd like to share then please post em up

[Sooner or later]

Wonderful thread

[astrochex]

Great update. Is the garden graded to enable drainage?

I am going to be laughing for a long time about your weeding stool. That is a repurposing I would guess BBS never anticipated! Beautiful item.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

If anyone has any top turfing tips they'd like to share then please post em up

My first suggestion would be to rent some power equipment to make your job easier and faster. You do a lot of things by hand, that’s admirable, but give yourself a bit of a break.

I don’t know how much rainfall you get there, nor do I know what the composition of your soil is, but you should allow for drainage if you are prone to getting large amounts of rainfall in a short period of time. If your soil has a lot of clay in it, I’d recommend that you consider mixing some sand and organic matter into it. If nothing else, rent a Rototiller and loosen up the top 6 or 8 inches. A power rake would make quick work of leveling the area up again. When it comes time for the sod, buy freshly cut sod and place it. Don’t be tempted to try to grow a lawn from seed. Install the individual rolls of sod with tight joints, roll it to ensure good contact with the soil and fertilize and water appropriately.

[daepp]

I heart Mrs. Ahab!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by javadog

My first suggestion would be to rent some power equipment to make your job easier and faster. You do a lot of things by hand, that’s admirable, but give yourself a bit of a break.

I don’t know how much rainfall you get there, nor do I know what the composition of your soil is, but you should allow for drainage if you are prone to getting large amounts of rainfall in a short period of time. If your soil has a lot of clay in it, I’d recommend that you consider mixing some sand and organic matter into it. If nothing else, rent a Rototiller and loosen up the top 6 or 8 inches. A power rake would make quick work of leveling the area up again. When it comes time for the sod, buy freshly cut sod and place it. Don’t be tempted to try to grow a lawn from seed. Install the individual rolls of sod with tight joints, roll it to ensure good contact with the soil and fertilize and water appropriately.

Thanks javadog, power equipment is a great time/body saver but I treat my garden/building work as an alternative to a good gym work out so quite enjoy the hard labour

Drainage is pretty good, never had flooding and I've built drain holes into the retaining wall to the driveway

Lawn will be from sod or as we call it turf, plan to lay it early Sept when its a bit cooler and less hot. Also have a lot of hard landscaping to do before then too.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Apologies for lack of updates, work, Mrs Ahab keeping the kids amused during summer holidays and family holiday cruise along the Norwegian fjords has slowed progress

First up is the lawn, leveling all done, no turf yet but needs another round of weeding. Think I've made some more work for myself as we've decide we need another small patio in the far right rear corner of the garden, may put the BBQ there or might even build a stone pizza oven



In anticipation of our builder returning in a few weeks we needed to clear some working space for him to finish the rear garage opening stonework. Mrs Ahab and I spent a morning doing some heavy moving of the steel beams and 9" x 9" x 22ft long oak beam, rollers and levers are your friend!



Don't think I've posted this up but here are the beams when Mrs Ahab and I put them on the trailer last autumn. Definitely pushed the overhang too far as we had a harsh lesson in weight distribution about 0.5 mile from home with an almighty tank slapper luckily we didn't end up in a hedge. New underpants were required before unloading



Mrs Ahab has been putting the finishing touches on her driveway wall, we weren't sure how best to top the wall off. Custom cut new stone would have looked good but at $3k was just too expensive so we reduced our stone pile and matched the style of the boundary wall. We will plant a Yew hedge just behind it so the two should work well together





Biggest excitement since the last update was delivery of a new heating oil tank. 1150 ltrs/303 US Gal capacity plastic bunded (twin walled) construction with an additional 30 min fire barrier housing. Oil sounds a bit primitive for heating but we are not near a gas line, electric is far more expensive, roof pitch is too steep for solar and no access for a deep bore heat bump, good old fossil fuel it is.



Getting the truck into our next door neighbor's driveway was quite tight fit. Mrs Ahab was site manager while I was at work and as expected everything went smoothly

Tank is a big, ugly eyesore so only one thing to do but to hide it so I spent a couple of weekends building yet another wall using left over stone. It won't fall down time anytime soon as it's 30" thick. As Mrs Ahab is our stone walling expert the pressure was on for me not to make a mess of it, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out

[Flat Six]

Beautiful work, sir. Cheers to you and Mrs. Ahab!

[ckelly78z]

After I spent the weekend cutting/splitting 2 cords of Ash firewood, I can't imagine how your muscles must feel after an active weekend hauling stone, and beams, and moving dirt.

I commend you and the Mrs. for keeping at it...good work !

[jyl]

You and Mrs A are incredibly impressive!