Here is the site stripped to levels and cleared:
Just to show the slope of the land I referred to previously:
I am pointing the piece of batten at the underside of the footing of the existing cottage, which is about 2 inches below the current (reduced) floor level:
It's November tomorrow!!!!!!!
Right, the serious stuff. I spent hours re-setting out, using a datum along the back of the house. Some of my previous setting out turned out to be very accurate, which must have been an accumulation of errors, because I was working from the curved line of a portion of the rear wall. Now I can get to the whole thing, I can be much more precise. I needed the datum line, and a line at right angles to it. I did this with a 9m, 12m, 15m triangle, which should be extremely accurate........but I won't really know until the brickwork is up.
For those who haven't seen brickwork being started, you string your line between marks (nails) on the profiles, knock up a strong mix of mortar (mine was stronger than 1:2 cement to sand), and spread it as thinly as possibly at the corner locations. You then need to drop the line of the string down onto the wet mortar, which you do with a spirit level.....and patience, particularly on a breezy day. The other notable thing in this photo is the vertical batten driven into the ground near the corner. There is one of these at every corner, and they have been set to the height of the plinth using a laser level. They are accurate to within 1mm, which means I have no excuse if the brickwork isn't horizontal:
I do this in a couple of places per corner......once at the corner, and then again about 6 feet away, then lay a straight edge between the two and mark with the edge of the trowel:
Your first few bricks you just have to be careful not to spread too much mortar around, because it will obscure your marking out. Mine isn't entirely set out yet, because I ran out of light whilst I was scratching my head over a difficult corner. Difficult because I haven't got a location I can put a second profile, unless I do a temporary one within the excavation. I'll work something out in the middle of the night.....when all my best thinking gets done.