Now that we have permit in hand and it has been relatively dry, work has actually begun (cue happy dancing). They starting out by moving a whole lot of dirt from the back of the house to the front. All the dirt was dug out so we could build the foundation for the extension and new patio.
We’ve had a few discussions with our builder about what to do with all the dirt being removed. My idea of a mud wrestling pit was vetoed. Our builder has some ideas of creating a small verge at the front of the lot to create a natural barrier to the road. This is mainly because it is quite expensive to haul it away, so if we can use it we don’t have to pay to get rid of it. Cha ching!
When we stopped by this weekend our neighbor (who is going through a HUGE extension/renovation project) happened to be at his house checking stuff out, and came round and asked us if he could have some of it for his back yard. We were thrilled at the prospect of getting rid of some of it for free. Otherwise, that mud wrestling pit will start to look much more tempting. Plus we figured it counts as a housewarming gift instead of a bottle of booze or cheap fruit basket right?!?
As you can see they moved quite a ton of dirt. Thank god I didn’t have to do that. That is about 1000 more wheelbarrow trips than I want to make.
The only other thing you guys haven’t seen yet is the now fully gutted kitchen. They tore down the old pantry and ripped up the old linoleum flooring. Glad to have all that gone!
This week should see them finish the grading and start building out the foundation and retaining wall so all that dirt doesn’t bring the mud wrestling pit into the house! Hopefully we will have another post up this week and more house updates next week!