What happened to June? part 2 - Outside the house

The stone work is virtually finished.  After sealing, grouting and lots of fiddly bits the scaffolding finally came down at the front.
On the whole it looks good, though to my mind if the overhang had been correctly placed it would have looked better.  It's about 250mm, or 1ft lower than it should be.

The middle floor windows now appear a bit too high up the wall, and the top of the ground floor doors are level with the overhang.  The planned stone lintel above the garage is redundant as it would be hidden behind the undercloaking. We've already used a bit of it as a mantle shelf in the sitting room.

“A doctor can always bury his mistakes. An architect can only advise his client to plant ivy.” said Frank Lloyd Wright

I'm thinking wisteria - less invasive than ivy - and have already placed the vine eyes to train it across the building.

I had a last close up look at the front roof before the scaffolding came down. The lead has already weathered to match the slate. 

We bought a big roll of drainage layer for the green roof from a company near Huddersfield.  It is a series of eggcrate-like cups sandwiched between two layers of fleece. It was easy to cut and light enough to place on the roof alone. The bottom fleece should protect our waterproof layer and the upper fleece prevent the cups from filling with earth. In heavy rain they will fill first and only slowly release any over-run.

Once the drainage layer was up on the roof I had to call in some tough workers.  The smallest one did a great job hauling up baskets of sandy soil.



The big helpers carried it through the house and up the stairs and out the back.  We don't have a picture but I thought I'd better mention what a great job they did.


We're planting sedum which we bought last year and rooted many cuttings from the original few.  They all but disappeared during the hard winter but I think we'll just have enough.  I found a few extra at the Brighouse Charity Gala last week.

It's not finished yet, but at the end of the day a blackbird came to inspect our work. He seemed broadly satisfied and stayed for a song.  I wonder if I should import some worms?