Well, it's been a HOT one.... This was from the TV at 5pm and we were somewhere between that 106º and the 103º now but have no idea how hot it actually got here - only it was miserable.  Yes, the air conditioning was on but even then you could feel the oppressive heat just baking the woods and the house.... I water every morning to keep the garden going and to try and help the transplants in the new flower beds but they are really struggling.

Despite the heat, the footings were now all poured, the block delivered and set, insulation installed, and the concrete poured for the floor in the crawl space of the new kitchen.  Looking at this you can see the size and shape the new kitchen will occupy.... it's going to be wonderful.

 In order to access the build site the crew carved a trail up thru the woods from the "guest" parking area and around up to the house.  This photo is taken at the top of the curve in the woods and the next picture is just turning towards the house and the path continues up to the front area.  We had used this access previously when building the house but it had grown over...and I'm sure in a few years you won't be able to tell we had a drive up for this build either.

 This morning (Wednesday, 11th) the excavators arrived to do the stone backfill and final rough grade.  This time I'm having the water run AWAY from the house instead of leaving it to run downhill toward the house...details!  Our soil is so rocky/sandy it really isn't much of an issue but all the same......

In order to get the required height on the backfill I needed to install a retaining wall.  Fortunately I was able to salvage some good timbers from under the old kitchen and toenailed them together, spiked them with rebar into the ground and covered the face with erosion cloth to hold back the dirt.  This morning I've been covering that wooden wall with rocks I've pulled out of the ground as they did the backfill so it will look like a stone wall to match the other walls around the property....and I think I may have "saved" the bush as well.... all good!