Demolition time

The time has finally arrived for us to move on with the renovations to the kitchen.
We knew  well that this would firstly involve the total demolition and removal of our old chimney and wood cook stove  before the builder can return..
The stove was badly burnt out inside and was leaking smoke terribly and the chimney brickwork leaked like a sieve every time it rained.

There was a huge amount of brickwork inside the house and out( probably far way more than we anticipated.

The builder had loaned Hubby an electric jackhammer to help with the demo,

so he gave it a quick try out as I was leaving for  a few appointments in the next town.

When I returned home, he had removed all the brickwork above the roof line and had made a big hole in the back of the chimney.

The next morning a good friend and nearby neighbor called by to offer a helping hand and he and Hubby  made a great team, quickly removing the old stove and more brickwork.

The boys worked really hard , but it was a massive job.

They erected a few support props inside the kitchen to hold up the ceiling, and continued to demolish.

This was where we got to at the end of day 2. We would only work until lunchtime as it just was becoming too hot on the western side of the house, and we have been having some early extreme heat this last week.

The third morning they started to remove the chimney header,

We loaded all the bricks into the utility each day and every afternoon Hubby  and I would take them to his brothers' farm and drop them off into wash aways to help prevent erosion.

We reached the end of day three, and were exhausted, the helper said that we should have a break the next day and he would return, but Hubby  and I continued on ( we decided that if we stopped we may never start again)

We continued on and got the right hand side of what was left demolished and dumped.

When our friend returned on day 5 he was surprised to see what Hubby  and I had accomplished in his absence .

While they worked away on the bricks I erected a shade shelter that we used to have two of until a windstorm attacked, so I made one out of the two. I thought that it may add a bit more sun and heat protection for when the builder  comes.

The boys finally removed the last two sections of brickwork,

This was the  final load of bricks, we estimate that we dumped  between 4 and 5 tonnes of them, even though I was wearing gloves and Hubby's  hands are tough as nails, our hands and arms  are a mess.
The biggest issue we had was the horrendous influx of blowflies, they nearly drove me insane over the week, especially the last two days, more flies than I have ever seen here in 12 years.
Finally we realized we had the shade cloth

 from a previous shade area that we had on the coast, so Hubby  nailed that up to the opening and the fly issue ceased to exist.

It has really opened up the house, allowing so much more light into that back area of the house.
Our builder will return on Monday and I hope to be selecting kitchen cabinets and tops and have it measured up in the next week or so. We will start demolishing cabinets in  about a week.
It really feels good now, the kitchen destruction  is a small inconvenience  compared to the rest of the house.
I will do a follow up post as the work continues,
so until we meet up again,
Take care,
Cheers,
Jane.