The holes have all been dug, with much dirt excavated, the concrete half poured, many jacks and steel plates put in place, the loose mortar removed, the rooms dismantled and furniture covered in dust sheets
It's all ready....
I arrived around 5.45pm on Sunday, had an uneventful drive, some Melbourne leftovers for dinner, and then climbed into bed, and watched something on my laptop.
Monday, and once again a cold start to the morning, nice and warm in bed, but a cold bedroom and cold kitchen. And it takes a while for the panel heaters to arrest the chill.
Peter's crew arrived around 7.45 and were doing some more preparatory blowing away of loose mortar etc.
They were also in the dining room pulling off loose bits of plaster, in the bay window area, and where the big crack is, and getting rid of loose mortar from that side.
Mark from RA arrived quite early also - and started the miking up process, at least I knew what to do this time
Daylight became even more noticeable from inside, which made me a little nervous
The other 3 guys were all very busy also - doing similar
And Mark was filming unobtrusively
I'd also called up Terry, and Steve & Denise to see if they were interested in coming and watching the process, so they dropped in to watch
There were now many more and larger cracks and cavities to be closed up, and filled in
Peter didn't like the right hand corner - thought it was bulging a bit, so had to brace it with wooden beams
And then it started - the actual jacking up
Peter was like a conductor making minute adjustments to each of the jacks, scuttling down in the trenches from one to another - his team is terrific, but ultimately all responsibility lies with him
One of his crew - Jai was up the ladder - with his fingers inserted in one of the large cracks - feeling for the pressure /closing up
While Peter was conducting the jacks he directed "all eyes up" - even though he was only moving it up millimetres at a time new cracks could have occurred elsewhere due to the stresses of the moving jacks. And some new cracks did occur, so he had to ease off on those jacks, and push up others.
They called it a day late afternoon, tidied up a bit and left. I did some more weeding in the orchard - I had intended to do that most of the day, with the occasional look at the house during the most exciting lifting bits. However, there was something strangely compelling about watching - and of course hoping that great chunks wouldn't fall down.
The electricians were also supposed to come this aftenoon and connect up the wire to the rotunda/put in a light, but I received a text saying that they had been held up, and would let me know later in the day how they "were travelling". Well, that was the last I heard, so I decided to find another electrician. - found one in Llanelly about 20 minutes away
I also called up a plumber as the downpipe on the back wall had cracked at the join (with the lifting of the house), and would need to be fixed, and I called up another local to come and remove all of the dug up dirt and clay
Anyway, I finished up around 5pm, and then went to the IGA, as I had suggested a type of topping out ceremony to celebrate the successful end of the underpinning, and was going to buy some French champagne to have tomorrow
Saw a couple of our waitresses there - Holly and Angela who were keen for us to have another Yacht Club Ball next year
Walked back, and it was a perfect late afternoon - the light was lovely
There were some birds on the roof ridge -and they looked just perfect - like they were an ornamnetal part of the roof
It was Terry, come to see how the underpinning had progressed
I showed him around,and then offered him a G&T - which we had on the upstairs veranda - very nice
I guess he left around 6pm, and it was getting cold, so I had my marvellous warming bath. It's obviously not the best bathtub, but it does the trick
Had some leftover dinner, and then into bed to watch some Netflix on my laptop
Tuesday morning, and the boys were here early (around 7.30 again)
Spied Mark and Peter through the dining room window
seemed colder this morning, so put on my beanie from Karen
More fiddling with the jacks, and Terry and Steve came with their digger and ute to get rid of the dirt. This was also going to make it easier for the concrete trucks to come in at 1pm
Hard hats had to be worn - as larger chunks of render/bricks were expected to fall. and one did hitting Jai on the arm, and then glancing onto Peter's foot below. Jai would have got quite a bruise from that
They also need a horizontal support for the battens - just in case
And then - the moment of truth - the spirit level on the window sill - the bubble perfectly centred
What a relief - and they finished an hour early - around 12 noon - as the concrete trucks were coming at 1pm
I then had a bit of a crawl around in the trenches - to try and see how high they had lifted the house
As you can see from the below photos - there is a quite gap between the lifting plates and the steel plates. Peter estimated that corner of the house was raised up to (100mm) 10 cm in parts - which is huge
Denise and Steven had come back around this time, and Denise said it was as though the house was smiling - with the curves of the arches back in place
Peter had already poured 25 cubic metres of concrete into the holes that he'd dug out, and was expecting to put in a further 17 cubic metres
There were 3 x concrete trucks waiting in Storm Lane
This time there was no mud, so the trucks could pump the concrete directly into the trenches
Once poured, the boys were agitating it to get rid of any air bubbles
And smoothing it out
Given that it's going to be covered up I decided to sign mine and Justin's name, as Peter had said that he always signs his jobs with Countrywide
And then after all of this excitement, I opened the envelope that he had given me yesterday - anticipating what would happen and when, and he was pretty spot on
And then it was champagne time
I went inside and got the champagne and glasses, and popped the cork skywards
Obviously we're not going to have a topping out ceremony after each piece of work, but it was lovely to do so after such a substantial event. Although Peter did say that our friends would ask what had been done, and we'd tell them - but they'd look and say is "that all" - as all of the work has been buried
Peter and his crew tidied up and left, and I went and had another warming bath
Wednesday, and the new electrician came at 10am (when he said he would) - and I showed him the job, he said he'd be back to do it on Saturday - which he did,and he also tightened up the oven powerpoint in the kitchen which was a bit loose - so good on him (we'll use him again)
And then the plumber came over ( he had been working at the Town Hall) - showed him what needed doing with cracked at the join down pipe, then also the down pipe at the front veranda - which seems to be going nowhere
I also asked him about the tap at the vegie garden - as when Troy had put it in it was a different size to the one that Justin and Mark had installed. This meant that the automatic timer that we had wouldn't fit, so he put a manual one on instead. We wanted this changed, but it never happened.
Anyway, Dave the new plumber had an adaptor piece in his car, put it on for me, and hey presto - we now have the original automatic water timer back on - yay. This made me very pleased
And, being on a roll, I also asked him about the broken olive dripper pipe, he told me that I could just pull through the pipe and reattach it to the main pipe. After he left, I considered this, but then decided against it - as that would have made the dripper pipe substantially shorter, and I guess we wanted the length
On closer inspection - I found that the broken pipe screwed into the bigger pipe, so unscrewed it, and took that piece up to the IGA - where they sold me a packet of barb joiners, and also thread joiners - thought they would both be useful
I ended up using the thread joiner - joining the two broken pieces together. I was rather pleased with myself
All in all a very productive weekend - the underpinning completed, the vegie garden automatic timer reinstated (after so long) and the dripper pipe fixed
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