Demolition Day...

When the block next door was being redeveloped last year, the demolition took place while DH and I were away in NZ. But before I left, I gave my neighbour Judy, a small camera and the instructions to take photos on the demolition day...which she duly did :-).
It looked as though the demolition of the 2 houses across the road would also take place while DH and I had our recent overnight stay on the Gold Coast. But as things turned out, because we weren't leaving until late morning that day, I was able to document quite a bit of the demolition process of one of the houses.
The equipment arrived the afternoon before...

And was parked in the yard ready to get to work demolishing, first thing next morning...

The owner of the 2 properties, also owns the house next door which is tenanted. I wonder what those tenants thought when they looked out the window at 7.30 am???? arrrggh! lol

The attachment to the machinery was like a curved bird beak...it took off the guttering first...
Then the tiles were peeled off a section...this guy was really deft with handling his machine...

The tiles in the front part of the house are ripped off and the fascia boards are taken off...
Then that 'beak' starts working on the front wall...a lever action soon moves the wall...and it crashes to the ground!

The workers seen in the previous photos moved in when that front wall was felled and moved the wall to one side and they carefully took it apart. Other houses around here that have been demolished, have literally been smashed into little pieces and then the rubble is taken away in several truckloads to be dumped. At this site, the timber, windows and doors were all carefully stacked and obviously were taken away for resale/reuse. Only the roof tiles and the concrete and brick patio of the house on the left were smashed and taken away to be dumped.

The timber all stack neatly in contraptions that looked like upturned metal tables...

 The windows and doors stacked outside the second house...

 Now the machine and its operator turn their attention to the side wall...

 Going...

 Going...

Gone!

I then left them to the demolition while I did small bit of  the packing for our night away...just before we left for the coast, I took some more photos...

And then when we came back in the afternoon of the next day, another photo or two...
So both houses have gone by then; just the front patio of the house on the left...

Next day the machine worked on that patio...

And the truck was ready to take the rubble...

And then the truck driver operated the cover for the load...

And then the driver headed off to where the load was being dumped...

And that was the end of that!

Hmmm... not so good...

Yesterday's post focussed on the delightful things I found in the pile of mail waiting for us when we returned home. But yesterday we came home to some not so delightful things...(Yes Vireya, there were some bills including the one from Urban Utilities showing our water bill had gone up dramatically as the rates have been increased.) But this was something else...remember the rental house next door???

sad little house, slowly being allowed to fall to pieces...

 Remember I said that the site was going to be developed? And the builder spoke to DH a week or so before we went away and asked if it was alright to erect temporary fencing on our property and DH okayed this... Do you also remember that I gave my neighbour a camera so she could take photos if the demolition took place while we were away???  Yesterday morning while waiting at Christchurch airport Judy texted a warning that 'there was a hole next door'... so we were prepared...

Here are some of the 'demolition photos'...

The house is gone and our house is now the 'end house' albeit temporarily! 

Now for some photos I took yesterday...that's my compost bin (plus numerous other gardening items) now in the building site and off limits to me...go figure???

Our pathway down the side of the house is now quite obstructed...

Wet weather has meant the cessation of digging and trucking off the dirt...

Messy...

DH is planning to talk to the builder and see if our items can either be 'unfenced' or brought back into our yard for relocation. If I speak to him, I will need to be restrained as I'm quite angry; from our laundry window to our back boundary our property and possessions have been compromised. Since I took these photos yesterday I've discovered that our frangipani tree in the front garden has been destroyed just leaving a few trunk cuttings...I can't even find where the root ball is...

Sorry for the rant, but I just can't believe how lazy these people are and how arrogant to presume they can take over parts of our property...they are digging out right on the boundary line although in a few parts they are digging into our property. Stay tuned!!