(#51) My Epic Ancient Patio Excavation - Start To Finish

How a small dig turned into a full archaeologicial excavation and ancient patio discovery!
This a fast 'start to finish' version of my patio excavation work that featured in a number of my earlier videos across about 6 months.
The story goes something like this:
To prepare for some work on the front wall of my house I cleared the ground below. This included a bit of digging to try and make the surface more level.
But when I removed some old tree roots I made a surprising discovery. Buried beneath the surface were some ancient patio tiles. I was so intrigued that I changed my plans and started to dig out the earth by hand - with a pickaxe, hoe, shovel and wheelbarrow. After a couple of days work I had found a whole area of tiles and a mysterious structure above them.
I then had to get on with other tasks preparing the house for major renovation work. But 2 months later I returned to the buried patio to find out more. For a week I excavated the site by hand in order to find out more about what was beneath the surface, this time with the occasional use of a power hammer. At the end of the week I had to cover back up some of the work with an earth ramp that I needed for accessing the main door.
A few weeks later I started a major phase of renovation work with a team of builders on site. At certain times when I couldn't help the builders I returned to excavating the patio area. Still working by hand I gradually removed all the earth and rocks from on top of the patio. Eventually I was able to see the whole of the ancient old patio and to guess at the overall design. After a final scrape to remove dried earth from the tiles and pavers I power washed the patio surface with my karcher. And with much of the patio looking like it might have 250 years ago my epic excavation was at an end!

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chapters
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00:00 Intro
00:25 A Quick Tidy Up
01:18 The Discovery
03:25 A Crazy Idea
10:39 The Full Discovery
19:20 Outro

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about my channel and its videos
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My channel is about the renovation and restoration of an old stone house on a hill in Catalunya (North East of Spain). The house is near the Costa Brava and has magnificent views of the forest around it and the Mediterranean Sea.

The house has many beautiful old features, including its stone walls, vaulted ceilings, ancient terracotta tiles and many quirky parts added over the centuries. At the moment, I am working on the house on my own as I try to turn it into a dream home in harmony with the nature and culture that surrounds it.

The house is not in France or Italy and is not a Chateau or Cabin, but I watch and am inspired by channels that are. Especially Martijn Doolaard and Dan Preston's Escape to Rural France. I love Martijn's style, philosophy and cinematography and Dan's energy, humour and ambition. I'm trying to include some of these attributes in my videos.