Removing the frame around the fireplace

For a couple of weeks we've been living with a bit of foil wrap over the fire place holes. One random afternoon, Trev decided that he was going to pull apart the frame work that was build around the fire places because 1. It had to come out any way and 2. because he was busting to bash things with a hammer and there was no time like the present!

Re-blocking Part 2

With the fire places gone it's time to lift the house!
Your eyes do not deceive you. The house is propped up on the right side first then they did the left. That was a fun experience!

House up on jacks.Left hand side.

See how rotten the stump is on the left! It looked fine above the ground but you can clearly see there wasn't much left to support the house underground and it was the same for the majority of the redgum stumps.





Nice new concrete stumps!

The house being lowered was even more freaky that having it raised. I was sitting in the kitchen and thought the cupboards were going to fall off the walls as there was a huge flex and a crack! But then we were back down on our lovely new concrete stumps and it was all over :) We did suffer a few big cracks in the corners where the quad split away from the ply lining and there is a gap where floor meets wall in the bedroom which will need to be fixed later on.

Happy Easter its re-blocking time! Part 1 so long chimney and SC stove.

After a couple of uneventful months...it's all systems go for our house to get some new concrete footings :) I must say that it was an interesting experience. Its quite freaky feeling your house lift up and the floors are very bouncy while its being held up on jacks for a week. As part of the process, we decided to get rid of the chimney as the mortar was quite crumbly and it would have needed a lot of work to preserve it. After the chimney was demolished, we then decided to raise the floor level permanently as it was only about 3 inches off the ground on the front RHS corner. Because the verandah had been concreted up against the sub floor, there was a few rotten joists due to lack of ventilation and it would also make it easier to get services under the floor. With holes in the roof, wall and doors unable to close properly, we were so lucky with the weather. I did feel bad for the workers though as it was quite hot for them. I took soooooo many photos that I'm finding it hard to choose, but here is a small selection.

Inside the mystery box on the side of the house is a hot water service that would have been heated by the slow combustion stove in the kitchen when it was operational. We have a LPG instant hot water which seems quite the luxury (as long as we remember to order new gas bottles as they run out...) Unfortunately I don't think I have a photo of the cladded box that was built around the HWS but if one shows up I'll add it in to the before post.

First bricks falling through the chimney as it is pulled down.