Time to Drain the Rain

More tiles = less dirt.

With the ground floor (sans bathrooms) and the laundry/garage done, there was the final missing link between them: the backyard. And boy did it link up nicely.

1st Half

2nd Half

There were a few logistics to consider:

• Rain gullies - Since the passage is long and narrow, we decided to have a rain gulley on either side. The flooring would then slightly slope towards the ends, avoiding too much water buildup in one end in case of heavy rain.
• Floor level - It was decided to level it out slightly lower than the inside of the main doorway and the laundry, to avoid any rainwater seeping in. 

It was a painstaking process, no doubt, given all the random curvature and the gulley placements - I believe it took around 3 days just to do the relatively small area. In the end, I'm very happy with the result and it looks a lot bigger now, even if I do touch both sides when stretching out my arms. 

And to finally conclude the second phase of tiling, the front porch was similarly done:

The tiler has now gone off to start on another job while we do some preparatory work for the third and final stage of tiles, which will consist of:

• the bathrooms
• skirting everywhere
• the stairs to the roof

We don't plan to see him again for a few weeks, but we've got plenty to do to keep ourselves busy.