"Wow, it looks like a battlefield"

Yup thats the words from friends in Austria following the house progress online. It is pretty messy, but thats all about to change with the final cleanup planned for this coming weekend when we'll round up all the broken bricks & concrete, & hurl it all into a skip. So, the "battle of the bricks" is almost over.

We had great fun with the sledgehammers again this weekend, with the old back door step & toilet floor slab providing some stubborn resistance. Marty was especially taken with the big ol' sledgie - see this video of him in action.

Here's the battlefield - Monday 25 August

Nessie removing nails from the sarking

Oh the joy of doing anything other than lugging bricks :-)

Time for the sledgehammer

We've had a very fine selection of sledgehammers leaning up against the fence for a number of weeks now. At long last we had something for them to do over the weekend - double brick walls, yumyum!
Having picked the bricks off our walls down to a civilised height, we deemed it safe enough to smack 'em down - kinda satisfying in a very destructive way :-)

Funny enough this turned out to be the long way round in clearing the bricks - so much mess is created in using the sledgehammer, that it actually worked out to be quicker & more efficient to remove them one by one & plop them directly into the wheelbarrow. Perhaps a good example of a seemingly fast & quick-fix solution actually being more time-consuming in the long run...

Some video clip action for fun :-)
Nessi with sledge     Ollie & sledge part 1    Ollie & sledge part 2    Ollie & sledge part 3

Friday 15 August

Ready for sledgie action

A mysterious gift from a neighbour - very yummy!

Tuesday 19 August - all walls down, yippeeee :-)

Archaeologists Patrick & Elsa digging for treasure

A giant brickmonster is nibbling my house

A huge weekend for moving bricks - totally amazing team effort! Massive thanks to all who pitched in with brick shuffling, baking, & shifting bay windows:

Guy, Lilly, Hebe, Fi, Autumn, Theo, Dave, Esther, Al, Becks, Libby, Esme, Marty, Rach, Eva, Bruce, Jo, George, that guy from next door (Snail?) & James.

Looking back up at the house from the campervan each morning, it honesty looks like some kind of giant brickmonster caterpillar creature has been snacking on the house - little by little it's disappearing. Well, being rearranged really - the pile of bricks in the lower garden is getting pretty impressive too.

Biggest challenge of the weekend was the bay windows - the small one came out OK & was movable by 6 blokes. The big daddy bay windows are a different kettle of fish - the first got removed, & was promptly returned to it's perch on the brick wall, before being lowered onto a homemade frame for disassembly. Once the heavy timber was peeled off, & glazing removed, it was way lighter. Huge thanks to Craig at Canterbury Glass for coming round to remove the glass.

Friday 8 Aug - a few little nibbles off the tops of the walls

Guy, Lilly, & Fi on the bricks, Theo driving the truck

Fi & Dave hurling bricks down the custom designed brick shute

Autumn joins the brick action
There's that blue helmet again, matched with blue overalls - fashion genius :-)

Esther charging into it

Lunchtime!

Who would have thought bricks could be this much fun! 

Nessi qigonging it up, Sat night bonfire
Check out those spotty pants...

Sunday 10 August

Small bay window is out

Big daddy bay window - mmm, yet to be moved

Monday 11 August
Brickmonster very hungry

From the sky down

So, after almost a month of preparation we're now into the more visible end of the deconstruction - taking the roof off, removing all the framing, busting out the ceilings, & then removing the ceiling framing. Not much left now but bricks...

Friday 1 August - iron still on

Saturday 2 August - roofing iron removed

Sunday 3 August - about half of the roof framing removed, sarking piled up in the foreground

Monday 4 August - all roof framing goneburger, ceiling still in place

Tuesday 5 August - all iron, roof & ceiling timber removed. Not much but bricks left :-)

cuppa tea with the right honourable Kenneth Palmer

Mr Finn using his "study day" for  marvelous educational outcomes