OMG we have natural gas!

Not connected to the house BUT it is there and waiting for when we need to!

I'm so excited for the day I'll no longer need to be stressing out about if the gas bottle will run out while I'm in the shower :)

We have approval!

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between us and the council and Those Who Make The Rules**, I'm happy to say that our planning permit has been granted! We also have our owner builder and building permits ready to go too :)

Part of the issue with town planning was the way that we wanted to use recycled windows and clad the extension to match the era of the original house. This is not allowed to happen for reasons only known to TWMTR (my request to know exactly why remains unanswered). They do not want the new to match the old. Our windows needed to be MODERN CONTEMPORARY style, we were not allowed to use Victorian style window canopies, but they would not tell us what we were allowed to use except for they must be modern contemporary. After some discussion we are allowed to have them be a similar shape but we must ensure they are not dressed to look Victorian (so as plain as possible). The cladding for the extension is allowed to match BUT we need to provide a stop in the boards with a 3cm vertical break where the old part stops and the extension begins.
So we are pondering over the things we need to do so that we comply with the requirements of TWMTR. This is changing our vision somewhat but we are just happy that we have the green light and we can work out what we need to do.


** Because I'm kind of paranoid, the State body in charge of the decisions about our house will be known as Those Who Make The Rules (TWMTR). I'm sure if you think about it hard enough, you will work out to whom I refer to ;)

Cold snap!

Damn it's cold. It's 4 degrees outside according to my iPhone weather zone appand not much warmer in here! I'm really regretting getting rid of the fire place right now... This is me in my bedroom on my iMac. Rugged up with a blanket on my lap too. The kids have a split system in their bedroom so they are snug but it doesn't reach in here so I get to rug up in my sexy beanie and scarf.

She loves to bring me flowers :)

Pulled from the garden roots and all and left on the back step for me to find!

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.