This is the rubble we pulled out of the bedroom on New Years Day.
Then we cleared out the lounge room ready for the demolition. Consider this a "before" photo!
Behind the heater we found an old fireplace!
There are a lots of hidden surprises in this Old Cottage! These are really bad old 70's bricks (maybe?) which appear to be over the original fireplace. We plan on taking them off today.
Yesterday Mum and my brother Ross came over to help take out the concrete floor in the lounge room. The concrete was much thicker than the bedroom was, and very much more difficult to remove. Their help was greatly appreciated!
And this is what the lounge room looks like this morning. A little different from the "before" pic, hey!
The walls had to come down - and this picture shows the brick wall which is partially falling down pretty well.
We'll be replacing the right wall with timber, we think, since it's not a supporting wall. The left one appears to be in good condition, so we'll keep that one.
Aside from the demolition, Marty knocked-up some fly-screens for the front two windows. It really does help keep the dust down, and the flies out, making sleeping up here much more comfortable. Marty doesn't think they're worth showing off, but I'm proud of them! :)
In the garden, I planted some corn in the front garden beds yesterday morning - they're late in the season, but hopefully we'll get some corn never-the-less. This morning I noticed 3 rabbits frolicking in our back yard, and took a couple of quick shots. At least we know how they're getting in, and will be solving that little problem with a bit of chicken-wire fencing in no time at all. Cheeky little buggers!
Today we're going to remove the walls in the lounge room, clean-up a bit in there then shovel out rubble from the floor area. The lounge room is much wetter under the floor than the bedroom was, and it's in desperate need of some TLC. Mum and Michael think it's going to look great. We're taking their word for it! ;)
Until next time!
You are doing a great job! Mums come in handy don't they? I sympathise with your rabbit problem - we have a plague of them on our little peninsular - they literally have nowhere to go, bounded by ocean one side, river the other, and cliffs the other side. We have wallabies that do no harm, just eat the grass and poo. But the rabbits are so destructive - and they breed like - well, you know what!
ReplyDeleteNow this looks like a really huge job. I love the fireplace. Are you really going to remove the bricks surrounding it? It looks good in the pics.
ReplyDeleteHi Mom, good to see you back! The bricks around the fireplace were poorly attached, and came off with a little push from us. (The mantle over the fireplace was only held on with glue!) The original fireplace bricks are much more sturdy, and we'll be keeping those in place.
ReplyDeleteWe'd love to see an gas log fire in there in the future - and maybe just a basic lime render for the bricks - not sure.
Amazing that the lime mortar is still standing fairly strong even after over 100 years! The concrete the previous owners used to repair it has actually made the situation worse for the poor walls, and we'll be removing it soon and replacing it with the traditional mortar. I imagine it'll last at least another 100 years! :)
Do you know what I see in that pile of bricks just out the window? Cob oven!!
ReplyDeleteYou're making great strides in this project. You'll feel as pleased as punch after the final coat of paint goes on, and move the furniture back in.
Hi, glad to be back home. It was a very fast and hard trip. We drove about 4300 miles in 7 days. We stopped quite often and stayed at hotels every night. But I am still really tired. Cliff and Arnie fared better than me and they did all the driving. Good to have Arne home though. He is looking into nursing schools and putting in applications.
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