Site Meeting; June 14 2013

This morning we had a site meeting with Bernard (our architect), our demolition contractor, Mark, who would also like to build the new house and the consulting engineer, Eric, who we had not met before.  This was mostly to discuss getting the levels on the property right before building can start.  The engineer now needs a few more days to work things out more precisely.  In the end we will be looking at three separate levels:  the first, at street level will be where the cottage will be built.  There will be a retaining wall built behind the cottage.  The driveway will slope down past the cottage and curve to the right into the garage which will be on the second level, the same as that on which the house will be built.  The third level will be the garden which will be one or two shallow steps below the front verandah.

Working out where rubble has to be used as filler etc is quite complicated and one thing I am quite sure about is that I don’t want to discover broken bricks and tiles just a few metres down in the garden.  So the preparation of the site is very important and it’s going to take a bit of time to get it right.

Today at last we were able to get a very clear view of the whole property from the street down to the garden wall bordering the park.  We are thrilled with it.  I was also really pleased to hear some lovely bird calls there this morning despite the prevailing wreckage.  There were grey louries around and a black collared barbet fluted continuously.  Leaving behind the prolific bird life in our present garden is the thing I feel most concerned about so it was reassuring to hear all the singing today.

South to North View. I stood almost where the driveway gate will be to take this. It gives quite a good sense of the length of the site.

Opposite view from North to South. Taken from almost the ‘park’ wall.

Watchman’s Hut in bottom right hand corner.

Eric and Bernard in discussion

More discussion…

And even more…

In this last picture we have Phineas who seems to be in charge of the site at the moment, Greg who is one of Mark’s project managers, Eric the engineer and Mark.  Esprit Contractors have an arrangement whereby they donate salvaged materials like the tiles and pavers here, bath tubs, sinks etc to building projects in the townships.  Everything that can possibly be used again, will be.

Stacked up bath tubs and a few window frames waiting to go.