Two days ago, our workers told us that they are going to start doing our entrance next Monday - which is fantastic - except that we didn't have the tiles required, there are still walls standing that will be removed, the floor needed to be lifted, the wall paneling needs to be stripped and - we need a plumber to come in and do the floor heating. Thanks for the warning guys :)
The reason that it is on such short notice is that these particular tradies are doing their work between other work, so there is a fair bit of inconsistency. Sometimes they aren't here for three weeks and sometimes they are here several days in a row. It is a bit frustrating, but we are managing.
The tiles we ordered did get delivered on the same day however, so that is one thing less to stress about - otherwise we might have been stuck with the mental asylum floor that was underneath the laminate flooring panels.
Because they have been here the last few days working upstairs, things are moving pretty fast at the moment and I am quietly optimistic that we will be able to move upstairs before the end of the year, though it won't actually be completely finished by then - I predict. As soon as we can get up there though, it means that we are able to start doing the surfaces downstairs and because that is mostly surface work (drywall, sanding and painting floors, painting etc), it should move quickly and make a rapid change in appearance.
We are closing in on the end of our renovation period, but not the end of our renovation - and with the evaluation coming up in the new year, every little bit of value-adding we can do between now and then is going to make a difference. At the end of the day. looks matter just as much as function.
But this morning, instead of starting with the demolition work, we will be moving an entire house onto our property from the neighbor's place - A kid's playhouse. Their children have grown up and no longer use it and they want to have the space back in their yard, so we are going to attempt to move it across the road for Smallsteps. The neighbor thinks that we are going to "Egyptian slave" it and roll it on logs all the way, like they did the pyramid blocks. I am dubious about the plan and whether the almost 40 year old wooden house will survive, but I am game to try. If we do manage to get it into position though, I think Smallsteps will enjoy it once Spring rolls around again and perhaps it will make the garden feel more homely.
Right, now it is time to go get whipped - and not in the fun way.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Rolling on logs? The logs and the roads are uneven and will shake that house broken methinks?
Have you considered rather sliding it?
Two lines of flat planks, a cable around the house hooked to the towbar on a truck and sliding the house over?
We considered it, but I think this worked pretty well - at leat it is in position and the glass didn't break :)
It was a bit of fun.
Great and glad that it's done.
I only offered the advice as it was the way that I used to move big packaging machines.
Bet that it was some fun lol.
I mentioned doing the same to them, but they already had the logs. I think (based on the bottom structure) we would have had to pull it sideways - which might have been worse on the frame.
It was some fun :)
Oh yeah, never pull things sideway lol. Think of a car and try to pull it sideways instead of forward or backwards. We were taught that every item has a natural moving, or motion point and the secret is to find it.
You had the right idea, but the logs worked which is a bonus lol.
So, I hope that soon we will see smallsteps in her dollhouse?
Of course with a moving scribe to accompany it I hope.
At times people need a little tenderness!
I good night near midnight here to you guys Taraz!
I will get the camera charged for some pics tomorrow I hope - Night mate.
Apologies for the late reply, but this one got lost in the wash somehow!
I hope that you were blessed with the camera today?
!ENGAGE 20
Thank you kindly @tarazkp
ENGAGEtokens.Thank you kindly
I'm glad you are making rapid progress right now. Always stressful but fun to see the daily changes. I'm sure things will slow down again.
When I was a kid (maybe 6 or 7) my family had to move a single car garage. About 20 miles. We backed a truck in the space, jacked it straight up and built a temporary wood frame that rested on the truck bed. Then drove right down public roads with a 16' wide load :) They had to find a route with no wires crossing the road-and they did. Sometimes it is a good thing to live in sparsely populated country.
I really hope the playhouse makes it to your yard. That'd make smallsteps the coolest kid in the neighborhood with her own playhouse.
It'll slow down again, but hopefully we will have a clean space to live in the next couple months.
I dont know I'd they do it there, but in Australia there are "transportable" houses and schools. They move while houses on the back of a big truck. It really sucks to be stick behind them on a highway.
It made it. Will add some pictures later :)
How cool. I'm really excited for smallsteps to have her own place.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.Good luck in the moving! I hope you succeed and all the effort pays out. It would be painful to do the work to end up having to clean a pile of trash.
We were successful. I will try to get some of the pictures people took for a post later. It looks cute in the yard :)
👏👏 Happy to hear that!
Roll it on logs huh? Sounds like something I'd like to see. Good luck though. I reckon small will like it though, and it can also double as your temporary accommodation when you get in the shit and get booted out of the main house by H. You just want to hope it doesn't happen in winter.
What a chirp here lol.
I bet this message will be lodged in his subconscious and that he will behave hahaha.
It's possible but at least my sister in law will know there's alternative accommodation for T-Dog so won't hesitate to banish him there if required. 🤣
That's funny. Move over little dog, a mean old dog is movin' in.
Ah, sounds that he will be on both a tight rope and a leash 🤣
One good thing is that the alternative is rent free!
A place of repentance as I would call it 🤣
The repentance cubby house.
Hahaha, I think a new label has just been coined for little smallsteps's house 🤣
Oh jeeze. I hadn't even thought of THAT aspect.
There would have been times I'd have taken unheated solitude in a heartbeat. Multiple times I'm sorry to say.
Minus 35°C there in winter...I reckon he'd need a blanket at the bare minimum, maybe a snuggie. 🥶
Yeah, but I can remember just how heated it can get in the main house :) Regardless of outside temperature.
Like the dickheads that can't understand my love of the desert always say "You can always put on more clothes in the winter. You can only take off so many in the heat."
Haha, yep they say that here too. You're like my grandfather, mum's dad; He loved the heat and would work all day in his workshop, (woodworker) in overalls and say things like, it's almost hot enough now!. 🤣
I miss my grandad. He was a top bloke. Hard worker, cheeky bugger too...That's where I get it from.
That's a nice memory of your grandfather.
Mine couldn't have been more different but I miss them both. My dad's dad was driving a tractor for my brother and I in a real pinch so we could get the irrigation system moved to a new field. He was probably 70 and I tried hard to keep him from doing any work. He got frustrated and told me a line I've never forgotten: "There ain't no sense saving an old horse."
Old timers are funny sometimes huh, the things they say.
I never met my dad's dad, he died of a heart attack before I was born. Liked my other a lot though. A really good fellow, well liked by everyone, kind and generous. I'll never be able to live up to who he was, but I try.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.That is what I say!!
Except I add, you can only take off so many legally.
A client was telling me the other day that his father in law keeps the house (in Finland) at +30C and the bathroom at +40C - that is insane!
That's crazy. Really crazy
I keep my house between 26 and 27 C when the weather is hot. 2 reasons it is that warm: Cost and temperature differential. Walking out into 40 C is stressful at best.
In the winter it changes. I do not have central heat so my winter temps are really dependent on the outdoor temps. I have an air fryer that has a 18C low temp safety switch on it and I occasionally have to light the range to bring the temp up a little to use the thing :)
It was a weird story. the guy has a peat-fired furnace and peat - so heating his house is essentially free for him. So... he just burns it :D
Ok - this is the second time in two days I have heard "air fryer" - what the hell is it?
It worked a charm - crossing the road stopped traffic for a bit though. It took a bit of manouvering through the neighbor garden and about 2 hours all up to get it 80 metres :D
It would be pretty cozy on there and I think I could just about lay down stretched out.
Throw in a bar, some blankets and a big screen TV and it could be a comfortable man cave for when you get banished.
That's quite funny what the neighbours thought when they saw it 😂🤣
We were getting some very amused looks when we crossed the road - the neighbourhood is going to hell since we moved in 😂
😂 I'm trying to picture the way you were looked upon 😆😅🤣😂
Good luck with the orphanage. I think the idea may not work, but the process will definitely be fun :)
It worked pretty well, though it would have been faster if we had more logs. We did it with about five or six only :)
Comments are always fun to read. Sounds like upstairs is moving along nicely and now when your brother comes to visit he will have a place to stay where any snoring doesn't bring down the big house.
I think currently, the loudest sound in the house is my own snoring - The chainsaw has nothing on me :D
While I don't think we will maintain this pace - it is nice to see some good progress being made.
winter is almost here so hope you floor heating is soon work and running because don't want to become popsicle
Me too - but it shouldn't be too bad for a little while. Though, when it hits -20 or -30 , I think we should have some heating. We actually bought an electric radiator for the upstairs already, as the spackle on the walls wasn't drying fast enough in the cool weather - as the radiators have been removed for the drywalling.
lol you got some brain we to use it to drywall paint a while back because in cool weather it takes days to dry
On the one hand, aww look at that piece of history. On the other hand can see why whoever covered it up wanted it covered up XD I'm sure it was stylish once x_x
You will not need a gym pass for the upcoming months with so much work for the house, that's for sure
We had to run the gauntlet of a fancy garden - even had to dig out some plants to save them along the way. No issues in our yard... 😁