Starting the slab

23-24 January 2015

The weather has turned awful.  Strong winds, lashing rain, still cold (but not icy) - so it is imperative that we start work on something just to conserve firewood and only light the stove in the evening.

So, as we have a few bucketsworth of sand, gravel and lime left, we decided to start the bathroom floor slab, beginning in the corner around the loo.  When we originally had the loo put in, we laid only a minimum concrete slab, just enough to put in a few stone tiles and fix the loo down.  So the first job will be to tidy up that area and square off the tiled area.

 First, I moved the screen wall away from the loo, effectively doubling the size of our bathroom in one easy move!

 Then Dave and I leveled and fixed the green baton into the earth at the height we want the limecrete slab to come to, drawing a line from the edge of the shower tray.  This area will be surfaced with stone paving, as that was what we thought we would be using when the loo was installed.  We want the rest of the bathroom in terracotta, like the kitchen as we're so pleased with it.

 Here's the area dampened down, ready for the first mix of limecrete.  We got one mix made and then a downpour happened, so we had to leave it half complete until the skies cleared briefly around four-ish and Dave was able to make another one.

 Meanwhile, Robbie and Sue had left us their dog 'Fruity' to look after while they went gadding in Cape Town. 

The next day - the slab all poured, but dented with cat prints overnight.  The bathroom window is a bit of a cat motorway, especially with the dog in the front room.