Renovations - Part 2

Even though the builders started working a week ago, they have only been here for 2 whole days. I guess that's because they have other projects that they are working on at the same time, and also because they are taking it a bit easier through the holidays. We also had a bit of rain last Thursday afternoon, which meant they couldn't stay the whole day but had to leave early.

Considering the amount of time they've spent here, though, they've made incredible progress. Most of the work so far has been dismantling the balcony (last Thursday) and excavating (Tuesday). There is a huge hole in the ground where they will begin laying the new foundation tomorrow (Friday). The cement truck is coming on Monday as well. Everything seems to be suddenly happening at once!! It is very nice to watch the progress, and anticipate the final product.

This photo doesn't show the excavations very well, but at least you can see how it is different with the balcony gone, and that the path has been pulled up. Also notice that the silver birch which was on the left side of the house has been removed. You can't see it from the photo, but there is also an apple tree which was removed.

The next 2 photos show the excavated area. The first one is a side view, from the north side of the house, and the second photo was taken right from the side door.

As you can see, the builders dug quite deep, so you can imagine there was a LOT of dirt that came out of there. The builders were kind enough to take all the dirt around to the back yard for us and even the whole yard out, which would have been a tremendous job. They even went to the trouble of levelling the surface perfectly and compacting it down. Our yard is a lot nicer for it, as the last photo shows. All we need to do now is sow a lawn - and try to keep it alive this time!! We haven't had much success with lawns since moving to Cooma... with locust plagues, weed infestations, constant drought, infertile soil, regular frost, 3 cheeky alpacas who keep getting into the yard, and a family of keen soccer players, it will be interesting to see if we can manage to get any grass to grow this time!