More progress

A more wordy blog will come soon, in the meantime here's some more photos.

Scaffold-board platform on the rafters, to get at the middle section of the second chimney.  This one is keyed into the gable wall so demolition was a bit more involved.

Finally started work

I've finally started work on the main bungalow.  Currently in the destructive phase, which is slightly alarming but still very satisfying to know what it's moving towards.  There does seem to be something very satisfying about occasional wanton destruction in itself, so it's fun to be able to indulge in a bit of that and have good justification for it.  I'm trying to keep the amount of stuff that goes in skips to a minimum but some stuff will have to go.  Much of it will be recycled by the skip company though, and it is still much less waste than knocking down the bungalow and starting again.  I have realised that this would be far the simplest way of getting a low-energy home, but it would be hugely wasteful of all the materials that make up the bungalow.  And although we are changing it a lot, I think some of the character of the bungalow will remain.

I'm still hobbling around a bit but movement is getting freer again, and far less painful.  Good!  I've become very attuned to spying men in work-clothes with a limp; they're everywhere, especially concentrated around builders merchants and tool shops.

Here's some photos of the story so far:

All these rafters will come out soon, to open this space up to the roof

Some photos and some anxious thoughts

There's a written blog below but if you just want to look at pictures: here's some of the bungalow pre-works, with a couple of rough artists impressions of what it might look finished (the latter are full of errors but they give a good idea of the end plan).

The bungalow seen from across the road.  The sedum-roof, strawbale extension will be where the garage is

The Bungalow.  That bit sticking out at the front right will remain as brick, the rest will be wrapped with bales and lime-rendered.

Roof diving and asbestos

It's been an interesting week or so.

I got off to a good start, finally beginning actual physical work on site.  Starting work on demolishing the old sun-room I removed the glass from the windows, took off the doors and stripped the half-rotten timber cladding.  During the course of this I became deeply suspicious that the internal wallboard was more asbestos; the survey last year indicated that the soffit boards of the bungalow probably contained asbestos but we hadn't realised the sun-room might have the stuff too.

The sun-room with cladding stripped, revealing the suspect boards.