A Grand Entrance 3 - Paint's on, Gates on, Anybody Home?

The gates have finally been hung. They were a long time in the making but we are pleased with the finished product. The leaves have been gilded after the wrought iron was powder coated, so everything should be well weather proofed.

Probably the last photos we shared of the entrance were almost a year ago, when it looked something like this...

It had only just been rendered, and not painted (as we had not chosen a colour at that stage)...

Below: The finished paint colour, compared to the exterior render for the manor house (plaster tile) and the stone dentils..

But now the walls are almost finished (we just need to have the brass plaques mounted, the carriage lights hung, the lions fixed atop the gate pillars, and the security cameras installed).

Above: One of the two stone lions for atop the gate pillars.

Below: The original design for the gates, showing lights and lions.

Above: The left hand side of the entrance.

Below: Looking back down the drive towards the entrance from the inside.

Below: The right hand half of the entrance before the gates were hung or the pedestrian gate gilded.

Below: The team from Iron Design, Tauranga, who manufactured the gates and hung them.

Some of the interim photos as they were being forged...

 Above and Below: The main scroll for the top, with and without leaves.

 Above and Below: The individually made leaves.

The gate before the leaves were gilded:

The closed gates from the inside...

Views from the outside...  

You may notice in the last shot we are missing 10 buxus plants from the sides of the entrance. Some thief with OCD decided to steal the plants symmetrically from either end during the night! Please leave our hedge alone, so that everyone who drives by can enjoy it. 

Entrance Progress...

This is the second of three posts chronicling our entrance's progress. This post covers from the laying of the foundations to the completion of the block work. The next post will show the finished wall and post box prior to the wrought iron gates being fitted.

Above: The masonry blocks arrived

Below: The trenches were dug out for our foundations

They were then filled with concrete...

Once the foundations had hardened the block work started...

The block work is reinforced with iron rods from the foundations to the caps, and then filled internally with concrete, making them incredibly solid and strong enough to withstand a car crash or similar. We were not going to have the average walls, into which vandals could kick holes etc.

Above: You can see the smaller retaining wall in front of the main wall for the soil for the box hedge garden.

Now they are busy placing all the capitals and coping. We designed the capitals and coping ourselves, and then our builders made wooden prototypes before creating latex molds to cast as many caps as we need. The next step will be for the whole wall to be rendered in plaster and then coloured to resemble sandstone.

Above: Before

Below: After (so far)

Meanwhile, on the other side of the road, the power company was installing  new power pole and transformer, and then thrust-boring the cables under the road, eventually into a circuit box hidden behind our front wall.

Inside the digger has removed several tonnes of top soil and replaced it with bedrock for the driveway. The driveway is Ca. 250 yards long and 6 yards wide...

Above and Below: The straight part of the driveway, looking back from the first curve towards the entrance. The straight part will be lined on either side with an avenue of plane trees. We planted the trees 3 years ago, but will need to get in a hydraulic tree-spade to shift them this winter, to realign them perfectly symmetrically on either side of the drive, as its course is not where we had originally planned.

Above: Middle straight heading towards second curve

Below: Looking back at  second curve

Below: The last corner /third curve before it straightens northward into the front courtyard...

A video of the first dive down our driveway...

The Entrance Begins...

And so, the work on the entrance has begun. It started with removing the fence along the road frontage, removing the Black Walnut tree to the left of the driveway, re-centring the driveway (which will involve shifting the avenue of plane trees 3m to the left this winter), and starting to put in the footings for the wall.

Above and Below: The Black Walnut tree

Above and Below: Removing the Leiland hedge (Temporarily) which I had planted on the day of the royal wedding.

Below: The Walnut being felled...

Above: Morning

Below: Next Afternoon

It was a shame that the Black Walnut had to go. I don't like cutting down trees, but it was right in the way, and it was quite old (branches would usually fall down during high winds). It will be replaced by a pair of weeping willows on either side of the entrance. But to assuage my guilt further, I called the local wood turners' association and offered the wood to them. Black Walnut can make some stunning pieces, and it would have only ended up as firewood otherwise...

 

 Above: Planks of Black Walnut

Below: Some turned Black Walnut

 Pity there was not quite enough to make a black walnut counter top...