And we're off!

The mobile phone rang at 7 o'clock (!) this morning - or rather it didn't ring because it was on silent mode. When I rang the number back at 8 o'clock (a more civilized time of day), it turned out it was the excavation company who had called from the site to say they were starting! Talk about short notice - or no notice, more like! Thankfully it was my office day and I was able to down keyboard (we used to say down tools or down pen) and go to the site. That was after I rang the architect to get him to send some more plans (drains, foundations and the land survey) to the excavation company. This was what I saw when I arrived (10.30 am):

The surveyors were also on site and had just marked out the position and height of where the foundations are to be laid (25th til 27th June). Apparently there had been a bit of "handbags at dawn" between the digger driver and one of the surveyors because the driver was of the opinion they weren't working fast enough and were holding him up. The result was that, when they were finished, the surveyors left the site without explaing the height markings on the sewer. Anyway, the digger removed the humus layer around the site - about 15 cm in depth. Some of it was taken off site and the rest was left in piles for later use in the garden. Herr Haaf, the boss, arrived and he cleared up the tiff between the driver and the surveyors and explained the markings to the digger driver.

This afternoon Wim and I went to the site again and had a look round. Now all the humus has been removed. While we were there we met Zoe, and English woman who lives in the village, and her dog Uschi - much to the delight of a certain Fox Terrier...

The next stage is on Tuesday when the deeper digging and filling starts for the foundation. Until then it looks like this (4pm today):