Knocking a house down

[peds]

It's been slow progress lately what with the recovery from hand surgery and both me and the wife being in work, but now that she's finished for the summer (a teacher) and can look after the kids, I've got a lot more time to give to the place. I've knocked over the trees that were in the way (including a lovely big bay tree, I'm going to have the digger driver drop the stump somewhere nice, hopefully it'll grow again), taken out all the windows and doors, removed the rotten old wood from the ceilings, all that sort of thing. I had a good look at the roof metal, unfortunately it just isn't worth keeping as it's more rust than metal, so it's all headed for the scrapyard.

We've got the digger arriving Monday week to knock it down, pile the stonework up in a corner for future landscaping, level and stone the site, finish the laneway, and start prepping the ground for waste water treatment. Nice for things to be moving, finally.

 

 

Anyway, I was poking about in the attic, I was looking at salvaging the old water tank and the pipes, and there's an antique water pump up there too that I'll be trying to get running, it's destined for use in my future polytunnels.

 

 

 

But what's this, double wrapped in a plastic bag...

 

 

Oh!

 

 

Gosh.

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by peds

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

16 hours ago, peds said:

It's been slow progress lately what with the recovery from hand surgery and both me and the wife being in work, but now that she's finished for the summer (a teacher) and can look after the kids, I've got a lot more time to give to the place. I've knocked over the trees that were in the way (including a lovely big bay tree, I'm going to have the digger driver drop the stump somewhere nice, hopefully it'll grow again), taken out all the windows and doors, removed the rotten old wood from the ceilings, all that sort of thing. I had a good look at the roof metal, unfortunately it just isn't worth keeping as it's more rust than metal, so it's all headed for the scrapyard.

We've got the digger arriving Monday week to knock it down, pile the stonework up in a corner for future landscaping, level and stone the site, finish the laneway, and start prepping the ground for waste water treatment. Nice for things to be moving, finally.

 

 

Anyway, I was poking about in the attic, I was looking at salvaging the old water tank and the pipes, and there's an antique water pump up there too that I'll be trying to get running, it's destined for use in my future polytunnels.

 

 

 

But what's this, double wrapped in a plastic bag...

 

 

Oh!

 

 

Gosh.

 

Looks like another hand operation is imminent then 🤣

 

Let the punishment fit the crime....  how true. 😆

[rapalaman]

Might get a few quid for those on eBay to put towards your projects 😏

[Peasgood]

I wonder why the gloves were with them. :D

Actually remember those mags from back in the day, mid to late 80's.

[peds]

1 hour ago, Peasgood said:

I wonder why the gloves were with them.

Actually remember those mags from back in the day, mid to late 80's.

 

Ah, the gloves are mine, I didn't want to damage the pages while having a quick rifle through them.
I'll check the dates next time I'm at the site, but that's probably spot on. One of the books has a price tag in Euro though, which would make it a more recent addition to the collection.

1 hour ago, rapalaman said:

Might get a few quid for those on eBay to put towards your projects 😏

Ah, I had a quick flick through them, and you know what... there's actually a few too many stories (no photos, illustrations only) about 15/16 year old schoolgirls being spanked by angry nuns to even think about selling them on. I'm fairly sure it'd be illegal.

 

7 hours ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

Looks like another hand operation is imminent then 🤣

 

Let the punishment fit the crime....  how true. 😆

 

How dare you lower the tone in here with your smutty comments. You'll need half a dozen strokes from the cane by way of penance. Bend over!

[Sutton]

16 minutes ago, peds said:

 

...angry nuns to even think about selling them on. I'm fairly sure it'd be illegal.

 

 

 

I'm a lapsed catholic and appaul your use of wearing gloves when touching such filth 😂

[peds]

Windows and doors stripped, ceiling torn down, all scrap metal herded together, bathroom sink removed (to be plumbed in behind the shed, fed from the rainwater tank), patio taken up, roof tiles from the extension on the left taken down.

 

I thought I'd go looking for more spanking porn in the attic. Tore the place apart trying to find it.

 

 

170 odd pavers, 190 roof tiles. Floor for the shed, roof for the hen house. 

 

[Mick Dempsey]

It may have been mentioned before, is it possible to remove the trees behind to get a view of whatever the mountain is behind?

Are they your trees?

[peds]

2 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

It may have been mentioned before, is it possible to remove the trees behind to get a view of whatever the mountain is behind?

Are they your trees?

They are our trees, and they have more value than another view of the mountain. Nice trees are rare enough out here, nice views aren't. 

You can pull on your wellies and hop the back fence, in 30 minutes you can be up on top of the mountain. That's a better view to enjoy.

 

There's also a different view 45degrees to the right as well, after the removal of a big ash with dieback, which is less of a shame.

[peds]

Poor cottage.

 

 

75 euro of scrap metal in the roof and pipes. Big pile of stone stacked up in a corner for landscaping. Spare soil spread out over the future growspace, lots of mineral-rich dab. I'll scatter some green manure seeds over it a little later in the year, and the polytunnels can go up next spring.

 

 

With most of the lumps ironed out, we decided to camp out among the stones and bones of the old building. 

 

 

A few decent bits of wood from the roof were saved from destruction. Some newer lengths, still with a practical application in the shipping container shed roof, and some ancient pieces that just spoke to me. Square nails, that sort of thing. They might end up as garden paperweights, or they might find some noble purpose in the future. 

 

 

 

Managed to nudge a shipping container 5 metres to the left (the delivery crane couldn't reach the intended location, the digger helped out), and dropped a layer of stone between the two. Just need to get a roof over them and a smooth floor, and it'll be a decent space.

 

 

And now, with 360 tons of stone down and another 100 or so coming tomorrow, we can almost start thinking about getting the raft out.

 

 

Long days at the moment, working 7-3 and heading straight to the site when I'm done, and spending the whole day here on my days off. But I suppose I can rest when the roof is on it.