Frames Complete

Our frames and windows were completed last week. We can start to see the house take shape now which is really exciting. The house is bigger than we imagined it would like like. Not a bad thing!! Now the wait for a brick layer and plumber begins. The plumber needs to do the internal drainage. Once the bricking is complete, then the rendering begins.

Soil Removal

We had 19 tonnes of soil removed from the block today. The soil/clay to be removed was from the cutting of the block and the piering. We had to move it today as the plumbers are supposed to start the drainage tomorrow morning. Luckily we had a family friend with a bobcat and truck!! He did a great job clearing and leveling the front of the block. There is about 5 tonnes of clean fill left in the front corner which we will have to move to the back of the block over the weekend with the wheel barrow. Not looking forward to that...

Slab Complete

The concreters poured the slab today. They turned up at 6.50am and waited 10 minutes for the official start time of 7am (got to keep the locals happy!), then got to work. Truck after truck came along and poured concrete into the pump, which had an enourmous arm reaching right to the back of the property. By the end of the day the concrete set and was then smoothed and polished. The form work has been removed and now we need to wait 1 week for the slab to cure. Next step, external drainage and frames...

View from the back garden

View from the driveway

Building Commences - Finally!!

At last, the builders have begun. A couple of weeks ago the block was flattened, then earlier this week piering begun. There are 59 piers in total which are each about 1.2 metres deep. The form workers formed up the perimiter of the slab and then the plumber did the internal plumbing. Today the form workers were back to finish off the prep work for the slab. Tomorrow they pour the slab, weather permitting! Here are some photo's of the prep work for the slab. I'll post some more once the slab is poured.

Demo Complete - Pegout Begins

After a week of rain delay, the demolition is finally complete. The block was nicely flattened by the demolition company. The builder came and put up a sediment control fence and laid some rubble at the block entry/exit point. Hopefully the perimiter fence will go up this week to keep people off the block.

The Pegout was done this week. The size of the house foot print is huge!!

Demolition - Day 3

Today the heavy machinery arrived. They made a real mess of the place and the diggers arm went through the house like a knife through butter. We loved it!! And never being afraid to get my hands dirty, I took a seat front and centre in the digger to make sure the house got smashed real good. I need a career change I tell you!! I had a blast. Enjoy the pics!

Demolition Starts...

Two days of demolition are now complete. So far they have stripped out all the asbestos fibro sheeting, roof tiles, the recyclable and re-usable parts including timber and aluminium windows, timber features, porcelain, doors, light fittings and copper piping.

Blank Canvas

Here is our house as it stood when we first bought it in May 2007. It is a late 1940's or early 1950's fibro house located in Hunters Hill around the Boronia Park area. We bought the house with the intention to knock down and rebuild in the not so distant future. We looked at several older houses in the area, but many of them were protected by heritage conservation, so when this house came up for sale we snapped it up. The plan was to stay in the house for about 5 years then rebuild, but in the end we decided to build after only 3 years as we have a young family and wanted to get the new house built before school starts!!

After 3 years living in the house, we had mixed feelings about knocking it down. The house had a certain charm about it, but in the end, waking up to 5 degree temps inside the house in winter, hot summers, and house basics screaming out for urgent repairs and renovation meant our old house had reached the end of its life...