Building the new steps at Villa Renata

December 2007
This is what it all looked like at the start.

The job here is to raise the level of the upper terrace, and create new steps down to the naya and to the lower terrace. The treads of the steps are to be surfaced with the same stone paving as the naya, and faced with the same stone as the facing of the rest of the naya.


9th February 2008
and this is what it looks like now.


Scroll down to the bottom to see the work in order.





7th February 2008

The steps are finished, the wall rendered, the back wall made good... but, is this really right? (Click on the image to see more clearly)





5th February 2008

Now we can start on the top steps. The large square paving stone on the bottom step is neatly hiding the inspection chimney for the 1st chamber of the septic tank.




At last, the lower steps are all completed, and they look really good!





2nd February 2008

Back at work, but what happened to that tidy terrace?








We can see the shape of the lower steps






24th January 2008

At last, the shape of things to come. But sadly no more work for a week due to a family bereavement.

23rd January 2008



A lot of thought goes into all this.

and a lot of reinforcing goes into all the concrete

22nd January 2008
Out of all this apparent chaos the form of the steps begins to show through.
We built a wall at the side of the steps on the naya. This hides the drain pipe and could be a good site for a barbecue in the future.

The foundation was reinforced with mesh.






19th January 2008

A good solid ramp was laid as a foundation for the steps. It was also a good place for a lot of the rubble from digging up the rest of the old naya.





18th January 2008

After raising the upper terrace and sorting out the drains and access to the septic tank (under the garden to the right of the photo) work starts on building the base of the steps.