This is the view of the site before the delivery began.
Before, we had information about what was to be delivered
including number and dimensions of packages.
So we cut out 1:100 scale templates of packages and tried to decide the best place for each.
As you will see not much went according to plan.
I awoke at 3am, realised the big day had come at last
and started making a list of things to do in my head, unable to go back to sleep.
We, that is Margie and I, were roused by a telephone call at 7:30am, it was Andy the driver.
He had come up from Scotch Corner and was raring to go. I explained we had planned to start
unloading at 10am when the street should be clear of parked cars. None the less we scrambled
out of bed, had shower, walked dog, had cereal and pills, all in a hurry.
We knew the delivery was by an articulated vehicle with a 13.5m curtainsided trailer,
so had already planned to unload at the top of the lane
and transport the packages down on a smaller trailer drawn by a tractor.
The delivery note said the load was: 27tonne and 78 cubic metre, 14 packages.
Here is the monster full with half a wooden house.
Parked in front is a 9.5m telehandler, weighing 8 tonnes.
Here is a package 12 metre long being unloaded. The longest we had to cope with.
and being placed on to the trailer of the tractor.
After these very long loads were unloaded -
the rest of the packages were removed and -
distributed around about -
so that they could be brought to the plot in the correct order.
But there was a little matter of a broken down car in the way.
The modus operandi was for the tractor to reverse the trailer down the lane
the telehandler to lift a package off the trailer
the tractor to go fowards and the telehandler would manouvre it into the plot.
Something easier said than done when it is an 11m package weighing over 3tonne
We had to resort to placing bits of circular telegraph poles under the package
(you can see one to the left of the package)
and pushing the package using the telehandler.
This is even longer, 12m, and that lampost caused us no end of bother
it is remarkable it survived the delivery.
We wanted it at the back of the plot and the telehandler was at full reach
we had to push this near end over and lower the whole thing
then to lift the other end and push it over and down.
This is the brains and skill of the whole delivery, John Young
This was the situation at lunchtime.
Most of the packages could be simply trundled down the lane.
Thanks to all the people who had parked elsewhere.
This is David the tractor driver.
This is the final package, the garage, and the first to be erected
so we will have more space to store things in the second delivery under cover.
Why Artichouse has to send 70 plaster boards all the way from Finland
is beyond our understanding, and jolly hard work. That is Margie and me.
This is the site at the end of the day.