18 August 2008

Building Apollo Studio (Part 4)

Studio construction has started. The first thing we did it clear out the garden. All the plants and trees had to be moved in order to save them for later. Also we had to take out the wiring and pipes of the watering system and garden lights. After that we had to remove a lot of the terrace and path that was in the garden. This was a lot of work and we did most of that ourselves. Even the kids helped. In the picture on the left you see the stones piled up. We had these all in our hands. After this a path was laid with steel plates so the heavy machinery could drive around the house.

The first machine to arrive at the building site is a huge drill. It will drill big holes that will be filled with concrete and steel to form poles. These poles will keep the whole construction stable and in place. The ground our house is build on is clay and that is quite soft. A few meters lower there is sand and these poles will be stuck in this sand eventually. It is really weird to see a machine like this in your garden. And as you can see. Not much is left of our grass. Well this are will be build on anyway later so it had to go anyway.

Here you see the big drill and the pipe on top that leads the fluid concrete in the hole. They explained to me that they first put the drill down. And when they pull the drill back up the concrete is pumped in. After that the steel is put in to make it really strong. And they it has to dry for a few days. Since there will be a basement later, the poles will be sawed to length I guess, because the floor will be lower than they stand now. We will see. It is all a big surprise for us as well.

In the picture on the right you see a truck that holds a crane and pump to get the concrete to the drill. Since the drill is in the back garden and this machine is in front of the house they have to go over the house with the concrete. Quite a challenging project all in all. But I'm sure they all know what they are doing. I guess another machine will arrive with the concrete later. I haven't seen this one yet. I post post another update later. For now I'm going to have a look outside. It is very interesting to see this. It is also quite noisy all in all. So I'm happy I already did a lot of work on the album because at this moment it is to noisy to make music. I can't concentrate. So tonight I will continue my work on the album.

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