Work has begun on the fanciful toolshed. After getting quotes from Sasaki-san, I opted for a slightly less elaborate but still pretty fancy version of my traditional storehouse and wood deck design.
The first step is to reinforce the cracked and bulging concrete walls. These walls form the retaining wall between the driveway and Blueberry Road. Like many retaining walls, time and nature have not been kind. I will feel more at easy knowing they won’t collapse in a heavy rain.
Mr. Sasaki and Akila have been working for the past couple of days and yesterday they got the bolts placed and set up the forms for the concrete pour.
The new walls will be 10 cm thick, narrowing to 7 cm in the bulgiest bits. It’s going to be a lot of concrete – around 1.5 cubic meters – so the cement truck will be visiting 555 soon.
Standing in the space now – free of weeds and junk – makes it feel like a great place to store a wheelbarrow and some lumber. I wonder if the cats will find hidey holes in here?