A little more than two years ago we had the old, uneven, and unsightly concrete drive removed. We have lived with the sand and mud ever since.
I did ask our local calçeteiro to complete the work in February of this year. In the early part of April he told me that it would be two or three weeks before he could start.
As usual, we waited, and at the start of June I prompted him again.
Finally we had a fairly solid start date and he did begin on one of the days which he offered.
On the day before he began work, I had spent around 3 hours in the sunshine digging out some of the bigger weeds that were growing in the driveway. Hot and sweaty work which removed around half of what I had hoped to do.
The following morning, as agreed, he turned up with a mini excavator and proceeded to scrape the driveway clear of weeds and other debris. It took 15 minutes to clear everything and level off the ground, and make me look like a fool for trying to help.
After just two hours he had everything cleared, including a large pile of our old tiles and other rubble, and had already laid out the string lines to work to.
By lunchtime, the first load of bedding sand had been delivered and spread out. Surprisingly, to me, he began working at the top of the driveway but then I realised that this strategy meant that he would not have to drive the truck over the newly laid blocks when bringing more sand and granite to the site.
At the end of the first day, he had laid around a quarter of the area. And it was looking good 😊
And, at the end of the second day, it was perhaps two-thirds completed.
The next day was Saturday, we were not sure if he would be working, but this time he came with two helpers and the work proceeded with great speed.
Janet and I had to go to Fundão for some shopping and by the time we returned the blocks had all been laid and the team were already preparing to start filling the gaps.
After brushing a mix of dry sand and cement into the gaps between the stones they liberally watered the whole area to start the cement curing.
In the heat of the afternoon sun, the land dries very quickly.
We are very pleased with the result which looks, and feels, impressive.
We were given instructions to water the driveway every day for 5 days and to not drive the car on the blocks for a few days.
Now we have a fully useable driveway which lets the storm waters run away, hopefully keeping the house a little drier.