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Published: July 26th 2009
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Getting ready.
All removable structures had to be removed before the builders could come and lift the house, Murphy Mansions Mark 2 is about to be launched and a new family home created in Brisbane. Easy we thought, we have done it before so we can do it again?! Little did we know what we were about to embark upon when we stood in front of the cream picket fence!
133 Morehead Avenue, Norman Park is a post-war building comprising of an external wooden structure supported by concrete piers and a corrugated tin roof. The first floor comprises of a sitting room, three bedrooms and a veranda that has been internalised to make a fourth bedroom complete with front door entrance. There is an antiquated bathroom and cloakroom and a kitchen diner that houses a veneer chipboard kitchen with a blue carpet and brown lino floor. Underneath the first floor is a large expanse of concrete with huge concrete pillars supporting the house, allowing the air to pass through the house and keep it cool in the summer and at the moment cold in the winter! It is very drafty especially as the walls are not insulated so we are feeling the drop in temperatures at night. The house has remained untouched for a very long time and
is in need of tender loving care, you just need to have vision apparently!!!!
After living in the house for the past five months we have had plenty of time to plan and replan the design of the new house and explore further the complexities of the Brisbane Town Planning Department. Due to certain restrictions we have now been told we can only move the house forward and not sideways in order to gain a slightly larger rear garden with the hope of having a swimming pool built later on in the project. There is a huge double garage in the back garden, soon to be our temporary living quarters, which dominates the garden but would also be an asset as far as a possible Granny Annex or Work Shop later on when we decide to sell. There is talk about using it as a Gym come Boys Space as well as using part of it as an internal storage space to avoid using the roof. Kevin has an idea as to how we can disguise the outside and make it more pleasing to the eye so I guess it will be staying for the moment. As for the
fixtures and fittings inside the house all will be removed in time once the ground floor has been built and we can move downstairs to live whilst the upstairs is demolished and gutted. It seems quite straight forward but we seem to run into hurdles at every corner which complicate things. The internal walls are lined with asbestos cement, they are as hard as nails and placing a picture hook in the wall is an impossibility. Due to this we have to have a specialist remove the walls and dispose of them correctly, more delay!
Organising companies to quote for work is also problematic and very slow, despite issuing detailed plans designed from Structural Engineers the House Raising Company we have asked to do the ‘lifting’ seems determined to do his own thing because that is the way you do things out here. Headache number one! We still await quotes for drains and the concrete slab it will be interesting to see how they interpret the plans and job. The sooner we get a builder on board with the carpentry work and the over seeing of the refurbishment the better.
I spent a very stressful fortnight lining up
Next went the front door.
It took little effort to take this down. a building pole to be placed in the garden to divert the electricity away from the house whilst the house is moved forward. Who would have thought it would take so long and involve so many people and pieces of paper!!!. Not helped by the fact that we had no house phone and the signal reception on our mobile phones was awful. Eventually after two days of chasing people and faxing forms we are now managing to live in the house with just three extension leads supplying all the services. The oven and hob top does not work and we have no hot water, taking a shower is very brief now! Soon we shall have no water to the house at all and will be managing with boiling kettles and saucepans.
The boys have been working very hard these past weekends demolishing the ground floor structures preparing it for the building work. They have had to remove the front car port, front door staircase and rear veranda using electric disc cutters and crowbars. The vertical wooden bars around the ground floor had to be removed and two skip loads later we now have a huge open space with clear
views from the front to the back of the house.
Having viewed a couple of caravans with the possibility of living in the front garden for a while we decided that the garage seemed more favourable and so after a day of transferring boxes from the garage to the house we managed to make room for us all to live outside, just like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. So we have spent a couple of days rearranging boxes, furniture, clothes and kitting it out with lights, heaters, kettle, toaster and microwave. All very cosy!
The camping gear is ready to go and the cold garden hose awaits use for washing up and washing! We will probably have showers at work and the gym but there is no getting around the fact that we will have to use the chemical toilet residing in the garden! Who ever said life would be dull?
So here we are on the brink of a new adventure and about to experience the highs and lows of converting our house into a home. So watch this space there is no turning back now!!!!
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Wim and Ellen
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"No turning back now!"
Oh my god! The new house: It all looks so ............. horrible and terrifying. What a project!! But ....... we do hope, that everything will be sorted (soon). Please leave some space for guests in your Granny Appartment!? We're thinking of you. Hillary, you've been for hotter fires!!! big hug xx