Safety first

When you dig big holes, and cut into old buildings, there are some risks. This week we got our site fence, to keep any wanderers out..



We also have a house that was built in the seventies, when various nasty forms of fibro cement were still in use; in eaves, the carport roof, wet areas and even under kitchen tiles. Nothing that a team of specialists can't (carefully) remove and take away for disposal...



Plus we get a lot more sunlight into the garage now! There'll be a loft space going in above here. One day.




The laundry and ensuite demonstrate that seventies tiles and fibro and sealants don't keep the water away from the timber. If it wants to get there, it will. Nothing that a good sander probably can't deal with...



We now have a nice clear view of the ash timber floor all the way through. Oh, and the digging outside?



Mechanical failures (of the excavator!) notwithstanding, the digging continues. The foundation around the back corner of the house is now gone (well, it's sitting on the dirt to the right) so the corner of the house is just resting on that steel beam. Getting access underneath is a lot easier now.

Variations and heading down

Every plan of course is perfectly precise, and so sewer pipes are where they are shown on the original plan, and not diagonally across the middle of the space set aside for our new staircase...



Oh, maybe it is... (that puddle is water, ok?)

And of course, the original plan says the end of the house is held up by the original foundations, and the new plan says the new end of the house will be held up by the basement foundations.




But what holds it up while you're building it, digging underneath the house, and cutting away the old foundations?



The biggest steel beam you'll hopefully ever need to drag in under your house! Half a tonne of metal and a little bit of shoving and propping later, the house is held up while the ground is removed underneath it. Interesting quote: "While we were at it, we straightened out your house. It was 15mm lower in that corner than it should have been". We're guessing the drought had caused that too, since the courtyard had cracked quite severely when the ground dried out and shrank.




We do like open-plan living! Inside has been cleaned up a lot more, and the boulevarde becomes a little clearer. It won't end up diagonal, there's just a few beams yet to be removed. But some of them hold up bits of the roof...