The Demolition

Once we had decided to knock down our little first house and rebuild, the logistics had to be worked out.

The plan was to get married on 19th April 2008, shoot off on our honeymoon, and then begin demolishing the little house upon our return, so that construction could begin on the big house ASAP, which in turn would enable it to be finished by Christmas of 2008! We had arranged to move in with my mother (and brother, who was still living at home) during the construction period.

Let me claim right here and now that I was NOT a bridezilla in the weeks leading up to our wedding, nor did I succumb to the urge to be one on the day. However, I did lose my fragile inner calm when I returned home from work about a week before the wedding, to find that Tom had gutted the little second bedroom in preparation for the post-honeymoon demolition. NOT HAPPY JAN!

Needless to say, he rethought the error of his ways and decided to postpone further demolition efforts until the wedding was safely over and we could move our combined focus to the next project.

So! We had our lovely wedding, and jetted off for our wonderful honeymoon in Thailand. We couldn't help starting to plan the next stage, and somehow came to the conclusion that we needed to move out of the little house immediately upon our return, so that we could start demolition right away. So, we emailed my mother to ask if she could book the removalists for the day after we got back, and the wheels were set in motion.

What with a flight that arrived at midnight, then some time in customs, we didn't actually get to bed until the early hours of the morning that the removalists were due to arrive, with none of the house actually packed up in boxes. Thus, fighting the jetlag, we leapt to action later that morning and frantically started emptying out our furniture. Admittedly, this really wasn't a major task since the house was so tiny.

The removalists arrived, we got ourselves moved out, and the demolition began! Note, we did have to bring in the professionals to remove the sheets on the walls, because they were full of asbestos.

Ripping out floorboards

A friend and I pulling out nails

Another friend enjoying wielding his hammer

Tom and yet another friend removing the corrugated iron on the roof

Once we'd removed the frame and roof (so it was basically just a platform on stumps with a few beams sticking up here and there), the only other thing remaining was the toilet. Tom decided to drop his pants and pose for a photo in honour of the occasion.

Dreaming of couches to fill our new home

Tom unloading the giant pile of broken floorboards at the dump

And now finally, it was on to construction of the second house! I'm going to deem this the point at which our first house then became our second house.