An inviting entrance to our place in the sun

As the house is painted, planning begins on how it will look when everything is finished. We have come to the conclusion that the pile of soil that was supposed to be some kind of flower bed should be dug away and replaced by a wall. Behind the wall we want to lay paving stones so that the ground level is the same when you walk around the entire house.

Here there will be paving stones and a wall instead of the mound of earth that was originally intended to be a flower bed.

Paving stones must be laid with a frieze around the entire house and a wooden deck is what you step out on when you go out the door at the back. All soil from the mountain will be removed and a garage will be built to the left of the house.

The mound of earth has been dug away and paving stones have begun to be laid. Masonry blocks have created a wall and at the same time lowered towards the entrance to get a good finish. Everything to get the same height around the house. The tiles are laid diagonally to give a different and at the same time pleasant direction when approaching the house.

Good thing you're a time optimist. Re-cutting all the final paving stones in connection with the frieze takes time. The frieze is made of dark gray flagstone so it stands out better. And while we're at it, the masonry blocks for the steps also had to be cut to make the joints as tight as possible. It looked nicer that way. Nice to be able to mix different shades of grey. Dark gray paving stones were also used inside the wall blocks in the semi-circular entrance floor. All the passages and surfaces that were to be laid with paving stones were prepared with crushed stone 0-16mm and on top of that we laid approx. 50 mm of setting sand. We drove with ground vibrators on the entire surface. Finally, adjustments were made until the surface was smooth and fine without unevenness. Drove with ground vibrator again. Then we laid out all the stones and saved all the gear cuts for last.

We dug away the pile of dirt in front of the entrance and carted it down to one corner of the plot where it was lowest. The idea was to get rid of the steep slope that was. Once all the soil was in place, we decided to make a nice corner there instead. All said and done, away with the earth, dig, cart, drive on the tip. The returning trailer was filled with load after load of macadam and crushed stone (0-16 mm) which was packed with a ground vibrator, then put sand on it and ground vibrator again.

At the back, we have an idea to let a wooden deck be what you put your feet on when you get out of the living room. A wall will meander along the mountain and help the ground stone to harmonize with the wooden deck. We want to mix up the balcony with flowers and some white sea stone against the mountain. Behind the garage to be built there will be a space for storage and on top of that a wooden deck with a staircase that connects down to ground level. A wall will be built high up on the mountain to stop any soil from collapsing in the future.

Not so easy to make a concrete sole on the mountain when you have nothing to stand on. Carrying up concrete and masonry blocks and mortar is not the easiest drainage pipe is good so that there is no frost blast in the winter. Behind the wall, it is refilled with play balls. The wall will be slightly higher, but that will be when the wooden deck behind the garage is ready.

The wall is curved around the corner of the house and connects to the garage. This is because we want to lay paving stones at the same ground level around the entire house.

The wooden deck at the back is clear and is level with the flagstone. Here, too, we have chosen to use a frieze of dark gray paving stones to create a pleasant setting. The wall is built of masonry blocks and winds its way along the mountain. Behind the wall, we have laid slabs and drainage pipes. If there is a downpour, it wouldn't be nice if the soil runs over the edge and onto the wooden deck

There is a lot to deal with during the journey. All soil must be removed so that it is not left behind when the warehouse is to be built. The earth has been a path to run on when the wall blocks had to be carried up, but now it is going downhill. We do everything ourselves and have no real idea of ​​how long it takes and how much work it is, combined with the fact that you are a time optimist, you nevertheless look quite happy during the tiring work. You get used to moving around a lot, it's good to have things when you're in several places at the same time. The fence must be put up against the neighbour's plot and the boards can be good to have. The winter tires should probably be thrown away or end up in storage afterwards. But the lone remaining retaining wall block is not carried around directly ;)

A helpful father is working on fixing the ceiling/floor in the storeroom. The beams rest on joist shoes mounted in the garage wall and rest on a beam that is on posts drilled into the rock with post shoes. Soon it will be clear enough that the wall can be finished. It is a little easier to carry the masonry blocks up a flight of stairs and walk on a flat surface than to balance on a slippery mountain. We boarded the storage wall and its door with horizontal printed timber 22x95, but it didn't look so fun with horizontal assembly. So we decided to remove it and put them at about a 45-degree angle instead. Then it looked a little more well thought out and nicer.

The angle of the stairs down to the ground means that the wooden deck needs to be extended to avoid going down into the gravel. We wanted the stairs to meet wood where it comes down, and then an angle on the wooden deck needed to be built out. The wooden deck had to be trimmed to get a nice edge and then we laid printed 28x120 at a 90 degree angle to the existing wooden deck. Here you can see how it turned out after boards on the storage wall were removed and mounted at a 45 degree angle. Then we were able to lay the ground stone against the wooden deck and cut all the remaining pieces diagonally. We have chosen to keep the same angle on the ground stones that lie between the edge frieze around the entire house.

We will include some pictures of how it looked before ;)