Don't do this at home!

Well I think I can just about say, after seven months, that the conservatory rebuild exterior work is now complete! Mrs. Woody will be pleased to cross that off her list of jobs for me to do. It is indeed a rare occasion that she can tick a job off so it may be time to have a slice of lemon drizzle cake to celebrate!

The job that brought it all to a completion was the setting of the step slabs on a bed of cement and then the final gravel surround. The slabs weigh a lot. I used to be able, many years ago, to lift and carry these but these days I am more limited to lifting a slice of lemon drizzle cake and carrying it to the lounge to eat! I really did not fancy trying to give myself a bad back by lifting the slabs on and off the bricks so my ingenious if somewhat safety challenged solution was to raise one end of the slab and hold it up with a stout piece of timber whilst I put the mortar on the bricks. With careful and consistent application of the mortar the slab should, when lowered be level. It was whilst putting the mortar to the back of the slab that my mind kept worrying about the slab falling on my arms and whether this ingenious idea was indeed as ingenious as I thought.

Well the fact that I am writing this post is confirmation that no accidents happened but my advice is, don't do this at home!

With the slabs bedded on mortar and the surrounds graveled up it is finished!

To celebrate I cut the grass and then had an hour in my Man Cave where I did some more work on finishing one of the viaducts. The job required the end brick piers to be fitted which I left off when I first built the viaducts as I needed to adjust the height of the viaduct in relation to the track level. Now this is where another don't do this at home warning comes in. When I built the viaduct back in November last year I made up the stone capping stones to go on top of the piers. I put them somewhere safe awaiting the moment that I would need them. Where that place is is beyond me! So, if you do stop building something to come back to it later make sure you put the remaining parts somewhere safe but leave a note of where that is with whatever you are building! 

However I have replaced the first viaduct which is now level with the track following the addition of some card to the foundations and has the end piers are fitted. I will find the capping stones sometime!

Next up is the second viaduct.