Reprise

After consulting four people who understand construction and who suggested various workaround bodges, I finally decided to give up on the badly built shed base. It is not thick enough, it is not level, it is uneven and has runnels, it is crumbling around the edges and I know that the hardcore and sand were not compacted so it risks cracking in the future.

I have found someone I trust who will take it up and start again, and the materials were due to arrive over the back garden wall today. I find deliveries stressful. Will the driver contact me so we can liaise? Will they come to the right place? Will they be able to get into the car park? Will they be able to place the heavy bags where I need them? I was quite surprised to hear the landscaper also describe deliveries as stressful. If he's stressed, then I have every right to be.

Although lorries have always previously managed to get down the road to the car park, this time there were wide cars parked beyond parking bays and he could not get through. I tried to guide him but there was a centimetre on each side and it was too risky. 'If only the road wasn't blocked off at the other end,' he said.

Well, I'm up for that sort of challenge. Low Traffic Neighbourhood bollards are supposed to be locked in place but I know that many aren't. Sure enough, having gone home to collect a claw hammer, two hefty screwdrivers, a length of metal for levering and some WD40, I managed to lift the bollard out of its housing (all I needed was the claw of the hammer and the metal rod). The driver went round a rather large block to the other end of the street and got in. So my five ton-bags of hardcore, ballast and sand were delivered over the wall and my kind neighbour helped me get the 25kg bags of cement out of each one before another was stacked on top. I saw the driver out and replaced the LTN bollard.

And have spent the afternoon moving those pavers you can just see back right to where they will be needed for making a garden path. Because it will be very much harder to move them when there is uncured concrete between where they are and where they will need to be.

There are more to move tomorrow but for now I need a soak in the bath.