MORE Precariously Placed but all systems go

Well, under my house looks a bit like a labyrinth at the moment. They've dug more than 3-4 feet down and the house now looks particularly unstable on the square blocks of dirt underneath the railway sleeper stacks. The tradies have to walk across planks (the one above has a bit of pink paint on it) that span the footing channels so that they don't cave in.

Sorry, this second picture is a bit dark. It's looking towards where the front stairs will go up. I've included this one to show you that my builders have also done some landscaping...they moved the palm tree (it's now in the top right of the picture rather than against the house).

The plank of wood in the picture (going up to the roof from the ground) is for the 3 possums that were in residence in the ceiling of my house.... Before the house was raised, I put 2 possum boxes up in the mango tree out the back. The builder thinks 2 possies have moved in to them....we're not sure about the 3rd possum. We won't know if it is still in the roof space until the old roof comes off.

Although the soil is good - underneath is a heck of a lot of red clay but lucky for the footings and foundation, we've hit weathered rock. This means there is less drilling down required (so will reduced some of the costs.....hopefully this will mean the cost of concreting the driveway can be absorbed by the current allowances).

The steel posts (blue ones in the first picture) will actually be inside all the walls - they are not yet fixed in the ground supporting the house yet.....they are just resting on the steel reinforcing until the concrete pour.

Concreting was meant to start 2 days ago (Thursday) but the 20yo engineer at the footing site inspection was being purist by the plans and wanted the builder to take out all the steel posts and reinforcing and dig down a further 900mm (through the weathered rock). The plans specify digging down xyz distance or until hitting weathered rock.

This would have been a huge set-back in time (it's about a week of extra work) and additional cost, so my builder asked for a second opinion from a more senior engineer. Thank god the senior engineer agreed with my builder and so it's now all systems go again.....

My builder rang me late yesterday, the concrete pour is now scheduled for monday (5 June).

My builder keeps telling me about the views I now have from 'upstairs' - soon I'll go up the ladder into the house and take some pics and give you a peek-preview......

Forgot to mention. A toe wall has also been put in down the driveway/garage side of the house so they can level off the block somewhat...

Precariously Placed....

My neighbours told me this morning that the house was perched as per the picture on the left by 12 noon yesterday. It only took 5 hours (from 7am) to get it up in the air 9 feet.

Here are some more pictures I took this morning.....

If I jump up, I can touch the bottom of the house.......

Picture 1 - Front entrance/verandah from the side - the tree is where the steps will be.

Picture 2 - Down the garage/drive way side of the house (on the left of the house when you look at it). The bay window is where the sink is currently located -soon to be window seat for R&R.

Picture 3 - Back of the house where the back door is currently located (soon to be the kitchen) - the old back stairs are on the ground. Right across the back of the house will be a big L shaped deck.

Picture 4: down the right hand side of the house - looking towards the front of the block (and the stinky porta-loo on the left at the front). The louvres (which will soon go) are disguising the front verandah and the soon to be study.
Picture 5: View below the soon-to-be kitchen (currently back door area)....just to show you the stack of railway sleepers and how little is holding up the house.
Picture 6: View from front to back, straight under the house. The house basically is held up by three big steel beams and these are held up by the blocks of railway sleepers. You can see the old concrete stumps (some are just the pale concrete colour - the others have been painted grey to match the house trim).

And finally, a glimpse of the potential 'street appeal' of the house - as you can see, it's on the corner of two streets.

It may be another few days before I post anymore pictures as the next bits are slow going - the house may have to go up another few inches and the stack of steel posts (to replace the stumps) that are lying on the front lawn will be going in......and of course, lots of dig, dig, digging by the bobcat as they are yet to go 3 foot down...

Must Be Something in the Air Tonight

A late day at work and crappy public transport meant that I didn't get home before dark today (it took me >1h to get the bus home....and it only takes 1/2h to walk....pretty pissed off as I could have been active and got home earlier, with hindsight). Anyway, I went up to the house to attempt to take some photos of the lift (as I promised I would)....this was a bit of an attempt in vain considering the lighting...but I did try. The following pic should give you a basic idea of how it sort of looks now.....


when you get closer, the house appears to be huge when up in the air......I now can't wait until it's built in underneath.... it's going to be so fabulous!!!

I'll take some more photos in the morning. These will look much more dramatic as you'll be able to see right under the house through the stacks of railway sleepers to the backyard + I'll take some from several angles.....I'll try to post them before I go to work.......but if I don't manage this, for whatever reason, it'll happen late tomorrow evening after getting my hair cut - a hair cut is a priority at the moment as 1. I can't see a damn thing so I'm in danger of injury from bumping into things; 2. my fringe is almost starting to make me look like Cousin It from the Munsters #o) and 3. I'm starting to do a 70s sort of farah fawcett fringe flick...but not in either a sexy nor elegant way.

Up Up and Away

Well, my builder called me on Monday night to say that the house raising (which was scheduled for Tuesday) was not going to happen until Wednesday (today) as the lifters were now off to another site on Tuesday :o( He was pissed off as they didn't tell him until late Monday so they were at a loose end on Tuesday as my reno is their primary job + he had to put back other tradies and the bobcat fella etc.....

Anyway, get down to the house this morning (as I walk my dog nearby) and they actually did come and do some work yesterday.....the house is up off the stumps by about 6 inches...

I didn't take any pictures this morning as you can't see much but will do so later today as it should be noticably higher......

Week 1 Pics

As Week 1 means the start of the reno process, I was keen to take some photos of the worksite.......it has, however, taken a few days to do this as I misplaced my digital camera in the move. So, here 'tis....... they were taken around 6.30am a few days ago on an overcast/rainy morning (not that much rain as we're in a drought) so some of the pics are a bit dark.

By this time, the water, electricity and sewerage had all been turned off - hence the porta-loo on the front lawn. The bobcat had been in to do some digging and removed some trees - including in the front - can you spot it? (this is almost like Where's Wally, but then again, maybe not) :o)

Asbestos has also been removed so some sheeting off ceilings, walls and also the lino checked/removed where necessary. I found out that some lino tiles contain high levels of asbestos. News to me. Under one bit of lino the builder found some old newspapers advertising a house (like mine) for 285 pounds.....now wouldn't that be great! Today this block of land alone is over AUS$500,000 unimproved land value....yikes!

Beige trim is gone...all white now. Looks better don't you think?

The laundry (detached) has now gone....

here's what it looked like before it was demolished.....

next pic shows what you can find under internal/external asbestos sheeting....I didn't expect the feature panel on the railing! This is at the front entrance of the house - it was/is enclosed bya battery of old louvres, but soon will be open to the cross-breezes....

bathroom is starting to be gutted - green asbestos sheeting has now gone....the builder et al have been delaying the bath removal as it's bloody heavy - cast iron.

Well, I won't bore you with any more photos. In 4 days time the house raising will be complete (sans the stumping and concrete slab) so the next pictures I'll post will be of my house tettering high on top of railway sleepers......

I've got a month before I can get into the house and start sanding the walls and 'no more gapping' the VJs walls (tongue and groove boards)....I've calculated I need, at a minimum, 8 boxes (20 tubes a box) to gap the house on the inside.....I'll take a picture of my blistered caulking finger later down the track. My lovely brother and his fiance are visiting around that time....I wonder if my brother can spare some quality time with his fabulous sister?! :o)

Inside the House

I'm sure you'ld like to have a squiz inside as I bet you're wondering how bad it can be considering I'm so pathetic about only walking around with shoes on. So, here are some internal snaps. it looks worse in person, honest. let alone if you have to live there.

This is the *lovely* lounge. The trestle was used for

cleaning the 20years of caked on black mould off the walls.

The one good find was the retro red vinyl couch pictured

(this is actually from my childhood home).

Here's a picture of the kitchen (including the back door) and then one of the bedrooms (soon to be the main bedroom with a wall gone). No, this is not my furniture and yes, we did a lot of cleaning before I moved in). It's fine to be divey but filthy is another matter!

The next photo is of the cramped dark 'study' but is soon to be the internal stairwell downstairs.

Setting the Scene.....the pre photos outside

Here's a pre-pre reno picture of my house when it was in BAD need of a paint.....lead paint mind you so a bugger to strip off. I forgot to mention that the house was built in the late 1920s (think around 1928 based on the title deeds).

BTW - I wasn't living in said house where this picture was taken

I so wanted a blue house for no logical reasoning whatsoever. So, I now have my wish.

Here's 2 pictures of the house now painted blue. Sorry about the angle of the first photo - can't say I'm that much of a photographer. Note the kacky beige trim colour.....this was mean to be white but this is now rectified (thanks to a weekend cash job by Wayne my painter...actually, I lie, it took 3 saturdays to complete the repaint).

3...2...1...Go......

Well, hi. I've set up this site as a central spot for friends and family to track the progress of my house renovation. I'm new to this whole blogging thing, so apologies for being a bit clunky and unskilled at the online chit chat.

My renovation has just started (mo Monda 15 May) and I guess this will be a place for me to share some of the highs and lows of it all with you over the next 295 days (as stated on the contract). The builder said 16-20weeks....hmmm....these figures don't seem to add up!? :o) Anyway, I'm realistic enough to believe there are going to be some dummy spits (most likely from me...I don't have red hair for no reason!!) and an extended building timeframe.

I've lived in the house for about a year now. It's divey inside but has got 'great bones' as my dad would have said. It's a solid hybrid of a queenslander-come-worker's cottage so has heaps of potential.....I can't wait to be able to walk around inside without shoes on. Yes, I'm a Qld girl and I hate wearing shoes. Also having modern appliances, taps that don't leak and rust-free water are all just teeny-tiny bonuses :o)

I've just moved out of the house WITHOUT removalists.....and I'll never do it again!! It's been a nightmare. It was a much bigger job than I remembered from my Canberra-Brisvegas move in Jan 05....but then again, that was with 4 packers and furniture movers. Mum (and her van) was a champ, as was David, my friend Sally's husband. Without them I'd still be moving stuff now. Me, my lovely staffy (Gemma), my furniture, boxes, plants and other 'stuff' (and I have loads of other 'stuff') has moved into my mum's. It's definately a tad squeezy and I can't find anything.

The planning and ideas have finally come to fruition. Digging and prep work started this week so it's all sparkly and new and exciting. Next week is the house raising - the scary bit. It's also a tad dauntingas I've not commenced such a huge project before nor gone into so much debt!

Over the next few days I'll post some pre-photos of the house ...... watch this space.