How long does it take to re-join and stump a house?

Almost 2 months apparently. At this rate we should be finished the house by the time the boys start university. Detecting a note of frustration? You bet.

The lack of posts over the last few weeks has been a self-imposed ban, I was scared that I would be sued for slander if I wrote about what we were going through! To cut a very long story short, we have had issues with having the stumping completed and have only been able to resolve it by playing a little hardball. Which is not the way we like to work. Thankfully having a husband in the industry meant we knew what our rights were. It is disappointing because it didn't have to be an unpleasant experience. But all's well that ends well, and we are now putting that phase behind us.

The house is now stumped and looking more solid on it's steel posts. It has actually given us a sense of how the downstairs layout will be, as the posts are to be set in the walls we have a rough feel for where rooms will be.

So today hubby has headed off to the block to begin work. He had a huge smile on his face (which I daresay may not still be there in a few months time!) and looked like a kid about to be set free in a toy store.

The first project is building a set of temporary stairs at the front to enable easy access during the renovation. I pushed for this one, as it is a precarious exercise getting two little boys up a 3 metre ladder! Stairs will be great. And we plan to recycle the timber into a fort for the boys once the real stairs go in.

The next things will be footings, retaining walls, the concrete slab, and the sewerage system (we are not connected to town sewerage). And then we will be able to begin the real cosmetic changes on the house, which is the part I am most looking forward to (not surprisingly). I can't wait to see the house with a new roof, poor little thing looks so sad with saggy tarps hanging off the beams!

I will post some updated photos of the weekend's work soon.

x M