The trenches for the foundations are dug

How this looked three weeks ago.

Because I'm building in tandem with my neighbour the builders are able to organise their work so that they don't waste time waiting for things. There's a delay on my neighbour's build right now so they'll focus on mine and it seems that things will move quite fast for the next week or so. It will be the other way round a bit later.

That zig-zag in the trench may be a foolish part of the plan. I wanted to replicate the sun-trap patio which used to be immediately outside the window in the middle of the picture but although it will still be private it will be very much smaller now that I've had to reduce the building size to try to cut costs. I did talk with the architect about giving up on it completely but that would have meant going back to the planning department with the risk of another year's delay. Ah well. I've propagated the red rose to replant there.

The builders installed that blue hose on my non-building neighbour's wall so that I can water the little bit of garden that I've moved my plants into. They've been co-operative about having a maverick gardener coming onto the building site as long as I access it after the day's work and over the garden wall. Luckily the blue-hose neighbours are also co-operative and are happy to allow me through their house and into their garden and to lend me a garden chair to help me climb over the wall.

Each morning the builders remove the security particleboard over what used to be the doorway into the now-demolished kitchen so that orange slatted door that looks like it's going nowhere becomes a wheelbarrow ramp. It was removed from my previous house during building work there 30 years ago and it has had so many uses over that time that I am now very attached to it. I'm not yet sure how, but whatever is left of it after this build will be incorporated into something for the future.