And they're off!

Lots has happened in the last week.  The structural engineer came on site to take a look at our wonky roof and declared that it could be fixed/supported with wood rather than steel, which was a massive relief.  It will still mean some additional cost but nothing like it would have been if further steel was required.

We received the demolition quote which was all in order and so yesterday we signed the commencement of the demolition contract.  The builder is going to do all of the demolition plus some of the structural elements while we await final pricing and signing of the full contract.

On the way to school this morning, we noticed that the fence around our house was open and there were banging noise and workman ripping stuff out.  As quick as that we've started!  We didn't realise it would happen quite so quickly.  This afternoon I happened to drive past (yeah right!) and saw that there is a skip in the driveway that is quickly filling up with old bits of kitchen.  You know when the skip arrives that it's really happening.

The last mile

It's been a little while since I posted, largely because not a lot has happened the last few weeks.  It has taken a considerable amount of time for the redesign of our roof and some other bits and pieces to be completed.  A lot of the delay has been because of the inordinately slow turn around from the structural engineer.  Apparently the large, expensive commercial project take priority.  Go figure!

We happy now with the new flat roof that has replaced our previous pitched one.  It has driven a lot of complexity out of the build and with that hopefully lots of dollars too.  We've also got to a final point on the cellar/ensuite/pantry/laundry which we're quite content with now.  The cellar at one stage was going to be too small and end up just being a large cupboard so we fixed that by shaving a bit of the ensuite.  If you're going to have a cellar may as well do it right!

The builder is still gung ho about starting this week...well that was until last Friday.  He went to have a look in the roof space in preparation for the demolition and he said and I quote "I'm surprised the roof hasn't collapsed by now".  There is a meeting onsite today at 2pm with the builder, architect and structural engineer to discuss how the roof can be propped during demolition.  And, I suspect to decide whether the entire roof structure needs to be replaced.  Not looking forward to the phone call about that one.  I can't believe we haven't even started and we're contemplating having to move into our contingency money already.  

Still, we're not letting it get to us.  We're still really excited about getting the demolition started.   Then we'll have a few more weeks of iterating the overall contract so that new build can start in earnest after the Christmas break.