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Week 4
Bread Oven Demolition

This week we've been concentrating on removing the bread oven. It's been a bigger task than we expected partly because a portion of the gable end sits on the edge of the dome and also because there's so much of it. It's a mini house. We finished the week with exposing the dome structure, which was enclosed in the stone walls and covered by layers of hard packed earth. We dragged in some expert advice from a structural engineer and a builder on the safety of removing it and the best way to demolish a dome. Fortunately the house isn't going to tumble if we remove it. So thank gravity for that.

And from the back.

Bricks and Stones

There were some interesting stones in the breadoven wall as well as a stash of unused bricks in the top section. The local manufacturer at Cuzion is readable on the bottom line. Apparently the brick works do still exist but under a different name. The brick in the photo is a 'pressé' brick for internal use as opposed to a 'brut' for outdoor use.

All the bricks and tiles below have come out of the bread oven. The demolition of the garden wall, some internal walls and the bread oven has contributed to this pile of stones, with the bread oven contributing about half. There's still a lot of stones, plus all the brick from the oven structure itself, to be added. This lot will be re-absorbed back into the place in the form of new internal walls, a fireplace and garden walls.

Fencing

We managed to put up the posts to enclose the front garden. This involved a bit of negociation with the neighbour. But the boundaries are now in place. Next stage is to put up the fencing material and dig over the borders.

Toolshed

After having all our stuff in storage for yonks and going to the DIY shop to buy screws when we have stacks of them, it's great to have everything accessible again. All the tools and equipment have been released from captivity and set out on shelves in the tool shed so we can find things again.