A mammoth undertaking

The builders had pretty much finished by the time I got home yesterday afternoon. They came back this morning to return the garage key and re-seed a few patches of the lawn that had got the worse for wear. I’m surprised that the lawn isn’t in worse shape actually, when you consider how many tens of tons of steel, wood and gravel have been carried over it. They also presented an invoice, which was the bit I wasn’t looking forward to! But it came in only 1.2% higher than the original estimate, which is pretty good really and within my contingency.

I really am very pleased indeed with the outcome. It has totally transformed my garden. I really need a wide-angle or fish-eye lens to capture the full context and extent of the works – but I haven’t got one since I gave away Christopher’s camera and lenses after his death. He would have just loved to photograph all the little details and document the progress.

Here is a picture I took today from the first terrace, showing the overall effect.

The finished upper and lower terraces

One detail I particularly like is the way they have bridged the gap where the old “water feature” was. The square-topped arch that they have built out of left-over sleepers picks up an architectural detail of the house, which has many windows that shape. So that sort of ties the house and garden together into a unified design, which I really like.

And here is another view, this time from ground level.

The terracing from ground level, showing the slope up

I like the way they have put an “end stop” of an off-cut of sleeper in the lowest I-beam so that it looks “finished”.

And finally, to show just how much of a difference it makes, here’s a pair of “before” and “after” photos, taken at ground level from the patio at the back of the house.

Before - concrete blocks and a shoddy fence

After - a forest of oak, and a big improvement!