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.

Chilly night tonight.

So I decided to give the fireplace a try. It works well enough to warm this little lounge but burns through the wood pretty quickly. Probably because its so small and can't hold a decent sized log. I had a really good look at the slow combustion stove and its way too rusted out to use which is unfortunate. There is probably no insulation in the walls to retain the heat once we go to bed and it will be freezing in the morning. I'm sure with the stove going also in it's heyday it would have been quite snug in the little old house once the fire place bricks heated up.

Trough bath!

I'm sure I'm not the first to wish I could know what's going on in the head of a 3 year old.
After invading my showers since she was able to crawl, Scooby has decided she doesn't want to do that any more. The problem here is that she wants baths and we don't have one. Going back to Nappy and Poppy's for a bath was getting a bit tedious so I offered her a bath in the laundry trough.
According to her this is the best thing ever and I'm sure she is dirtying herself up on purpose because she will say "oh oh, trough bath now" with a giggle lol.

Town Planning Application is in!

Because we are in zone with a Heritage Overlay we need to submit our plans and colour scheme to council for approval.
And now we wait. Hope they like our plans and approve them quickly. We were told "Anywhere between 2 weeks and 3 months" so I'm keeping everything crossed it's sooner rather than later!

Clearing the mess!

We have had an excavator here to start the cleanup of the back section of the yard. There is all kinds of junk in there. Old doors, a couple of baths, tables and chairs and heaps of piles of old trees from long ago pruning sessions. We have found some good things in the shed though. A table which is rough looking but will do while ours is in storage and about 50 old Home Beautiful magazines which I have enjoyed reading.

Looking from the rear corner up towards the house after several truckloads of crap have been taken away.

Le Tour part 2

Some pix of the yard. It is fenced into two sections. These first couple are the half that includes the house.
On the far left corner we have a garden shed overgrown with plants.

In the middle we have the good old hills hoist. You can see the gate into the back half/jungle feature.

Looking around the rear right corner of the house. We have some fruit trees - apple, pear and nectarine against the fence.
Beyond the gate into the back half of the yard is a total mess but I have this picture of an aviary which is just through and to the right of the gate.