Chapel Hill
This was the 70s asbestos filled house P2P bought. We did a deal with the house removal company who, despite the amount of friable asbestos turned up one day, cut it in half, and took it away overnight.
The local dog walkers were very perplexed in the morning – wasn’t there a house there yesterday they all asked..?
The picture to left is the house we bought as seen on its original site in Camp Hill – an eastern suburb.
We were told it would take between 6-9 months for it to be moved to our site. It took 14 in the end. With our site cleared, we levelled the site, put in retaining walls and started building the garden room – most of which was made off site – along with the concrete formed plungie pool which was craned in ahead of the main house arriving.
6 months later than promised, and with one week's notice, the house arrived at 3am in the morning on 4 April 2024. Two of the largest trucks and trailers I have ever seen brought both halves of the house onto the site. By 4am they had both trailers on site.
Nicky was in the UK at the time looking after her mum, so Chester and I were up facetiming the entire operation for her.
The crew slept in the trucks for a couple of hours and at 6am started stitching the house back together including putting the roof back on. By 6pm they were finished and gone.
The local dog walkers were very perplexed in the morning – there wasn’t a house there yesterday - they all commented..?
For what felt like way too long the house stood on its steel stilts. The garden room was finished waiting to meet its older neighbour.
Eventually we found someone to pour the concrete slab for the ground floor and that launched a hive of activity to build the double garage and extend the ground floor to create a two-bed self contained unit. ( we are currently lining in it while we finish off the first floor.
We used reclaimed timber cladding and windows to keep the ground floor respectful of the old lady sitting above it.
With the ground floor complete its now time to finish off the first floor and tackle the mammoth task of sustainably removing the old lead paint before painting the outside of the main house can commence
Insulation has gone in everywhere to overcome the challenges associated with leaky Queenslanders.
There was even time to add a bay window bow … a Christmas priority.
In the spirit of Christmas not only have we been icing the house ( with paint remover) but also wrapping it. The plungie is (subject to the pool fence) ready for filling, and the back deck links the new garden room with the old main house.
In true vintage style the MG has made an appearance much to the delight of our American cocker, Chester Brown..
Happy New Year xx
