As with everything else we wanted rustic and natural to fit in with the campo and having not the largest of budgets we put the word about for materials we required.
First up foundations, this is where the photo album of the original renovation came in handy - we had to dig holes 18 inches deep for the door frame. Knowing the electric cables and water pipes led direct out of the front door the photos were a handy reference.
Door frame. A local told us where to find some phone poles in the campo that had been left for a few months, these are 7m long and its better to cut them up in situe before they go in the car.
Plunge pool had to go - but not entirely, we left one side to add support for the corral wall and by the end of the week it was converted into a two tier herb garden.
Door frame in and the first run of the wall. The stones came from recently ploughed fields in the campo, all nice and flat with a red tint.
The old door was again free, found in a field opposite an abondoned cave. Not in perfect condition but certainly repairable. The bottom was rotten so was sawn off and a lenght of pallet wood screwed in place to maintain the strength of the frame which was in good condition.
The wall itself is approx 5.5 ft high and a single wall ie, no ties or double facings so the foundations had to be quite wide aswell as deep. Some bigger flat rocks were laid first to create the base and as the wall was built up the stones got smaller.
Almost finished, more render needs to between the stones and some compost for the herb garden. Herbs for next year will be mint, peppermint, parsley, oregano etc etc. Right next to the BBQ so quite handy.
Total cost of the project was minimal to say the least....
Rock/ free
door/ free
poles/ free
hinges/ donated (cheers Bill)
3 sacks of cement/ 12 euros
woodstain/ 7 euros
sand/ not used, natural earth mixed with cement/ free
TIMESCALE 1 WEEK inc stone collecting
TOTAL 19 EUROS. Not bad at all.
2 comments:
Fantastic job, CR!
Are you sure you didn't get some wall building experience on the Yorkshire Moors?
I did I had dry stone walls all around my property. I hope you know CR this has set my head off in a reel with ideas.
Deffo going to be good for the bench I mentioned. Will start collecting stones now.
BTw will I be able to see over that door when I visit, just so you know that I am there or will I have to holler.....:-))
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