This post feels very long overdue, but when I looked back at our last renovation (which was similarly timed from November to March in 2018/19), the first real update post I had was February! So maybe it's not that overdue after all. This round of renovations, in a nut shell, is digging under our house and building a Nana Flat under and out towards the front for Steve's mum. While we are at it, we are also landscaping the front yard to add a double carport and rejigging the front stairs to add a small covered veranda to help keep that front room cool from the western sun. So just a small job, right?
As with last time, we started with Steve and I doing some prep work, involving shed building and tree relocation which I've already talked about. Then, the builders rolled in and the first thing they did was a lot of digging. Everything under the house had to be dug out. Even though the final build was only going down a half a metre or so, it actually meant digging a lot further at the start to clear the space for footings and foundations.
All of the asbestos cladding around the bottom of the house was removed and the old cement stumps were dug out and carted away. Truck after truck after truck took loads of dirt and concrete to wherever that goes and under all the lovely green grass turned out to be piles and piles of clay. Sticky, orange clay. And then it rained, because we are in storm season after all.
And under the house and the whole front yard was mud for days. Our champion builders put on jackets and gumboots and kept working. New steal posts were cemented in with loads of concrete. Then lots of foundation work happened, which made things feel slow, but I can understand why you'd want to take your time getting the foundations right.
The Nana Flat slab was poured just before Christmas, and then everyone had a break.
After New Years, the builders were back at it, putting frames together, retaining all of the sides of our property and under the house, and clearing even more truckloads of dirt away for the carport. Somewhere here we also lost our front stairs. They put up a ladder for us, but for the most part, we've just been going around the back.
The retaining walls seemed to take a long time, and I was always surprised that none of the dirt from where they had just cut away ever fell down before they put the retaining walls in. Clay is sticky I guess. Under the house the retaining wall is concrete filled bessa blocks, and along the sides we have concrete sleepers keeping things in check.
The retaining on the left side of the house (as you look at it from the street) actually happens on the boundary of our property. So to put it in, we had to take down the fence and move it back a half a metre before we could get the retaining wall done. And since everything in our front yard was all construction, the builders put a hole in the fence further up, and we've just been getting into our place via the neighbours driveway for the last six weeks. Lucky we live on the best street in the world.
This is the photo I've been sending to anyone who visits to explain how to get in, along with the promise that I'll send the girls down to meet them. It's a pretty funny situation and since the start of school was pushed back to February, we had a lot of playdate visitors through that January/February period.
Since the retaining is mostly done, the builders had a lull in materials, so they switched focus from the Nana Flat to the veranda for a few days until roofing stuff arrived. Our front door ladder is well and truly gone now, but that's ok. It's great to see progress.
It's been very noisy this week as the builders started putting up the roof and attaching things to the underneath of our current house, which will eventually be the ceiling of the Nana Flat. Still lots of dirt everywhere and mud, when it rains, with mud wasps making the most of this free natural resource we unearthed for them.
Now I think this post is long enough and you will have to wait a bit for the next update. Until then, bye!
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