Queenslander relocation and residential subdivision

[brendio]

Welcome to the new posters. Thanks for breaking the monotony of my continual posts.

Annie, I have added your blog to my feedreader and look forward to reading your updates. Good luck on getting the neighbour's consent. The advice of our solicitor when I was talking to him about another matter was that it is better to offer some compensation upfront rather than getting them offside by not offering anything at first and having them dig in their heels and then not agree to anything. If you are reasonable, it is more likely that they will be too. It worked out well for us. The actual compensation amount we agreed to was only half of what we had budgeted as being willing to go up to, and the scope of the works was more than originally envisaged.

Today's Update

The building certifier started back from holidays today, so I went in to council to pay the security bond and lodge a copy of the pest report. I then took copies to the certifier, who hopes to get everything signed off for us to go ahead this week (so he can go away on holiday again).

The bobcat operator rang mum and asked if he could come around today. He made short work of the trellis posts and clothes line and lifted the grass where the house is going. He also got rid of an old brick feed trough and had fun getting it into his truck. He made a ramp out of the scraped off grass to get it up to his truck. He is coming back tomorrow to finish laying cracker dust on the site.

Mum rang the house relocater again, and he said they have bitten the bullet and bought mats to put under the truck so they can move houses on the soft rain-drenched ground. So we may be able to be scheduled in for next week. That means we need to get cracking again with the packing—we had been thinking we had a bit longer with all the rain.

(p.s. pics will be posted when I get them off mum's camera)

 

[Annietom]

g'day Bren, great news to hear the relocation is finally happening... hope they don't get bogged!

thanx re: soly advice. I figured as much. When I bought the place the first thing I did was go and say hello to the neighbours and tell them what I was doing right away. I thought, they aren't stupid, the block is ripe for development. Be upfront, but accommodating and respectful (obviously it helps if I don't get complaints) but it is also nice to get along with them, they may tell others about the project which might bring a sale, small town, possible! But they are really nice, which helps. I think my neighbour will say yes. So I will go buy him a coffee perhaps... sweet talk him! lol

Can't wait to see pics of your place too!

 

[brendio]

More trees out

One of the house relocaters (not the boss who originally came around) said we need to get rid of the macadamia tree near the side street and at least trim the mango tree. We were eventually going to get them out anyway, so I rang the tree loppers and they were able to come today to do it. They have most of the trees gone, but need to come back to grind the stumps.

 

[brendio]

Plans Certified!

Sorry for some delays. I've been meaning for ages to upload some photos and tonight I managed to get them of mum's computer.

We got the development permit for the house relocation back from the certifier today. Mum's emailed the relocaters to say we are now ready to go (well apart from a lot of packing and sorting still to do) and I faxed the form off to the electricity company to arrange disconnection. We're having a garage sale this weekend to try to get rid of a bit of stuff and lighten the load for the truck.

Photos: Before shot of the site, and tree lopping.

 

[brendio]

More photos

Photos of the bobcat preparing the site.

1. Removing the grass from the house site.
2. Loading the remains of a concrete trough into the truck. He had to use a ramp of the scrapped off grass to get it up on.
3. The cleared site ready for the house to be moved. Note the temporary accommodation/site office at left.

 

[brendio]

We have a moving date!

The electricity company rang first thing this morning to arrange disconnection of the power. They were due to come between 10 and 12. As we had still not heard back from the relocaters about when they would start, I stalled the electricity company until in the afternoon. By then we heard from the relocaters that they could start either Thursday or Friday and the house would be on its new site by Tuesday next week. When the electricity work crew came and I explained the situation, they were happy to come back on Thursday to disconnect, so we get a couple more days before we have to move into the van. We still have a few last minute things to pack up, and the old wood stove to get out—I thought I had mentioned the wood stove, but evidently I haven't.

When mum got the kitchen redone about 10 years ago, she moved the old wood stove as far as the landing at the top of the stairs just by the toilet and couldn't get it any further because of how heavy it is. It will be interesting getting it out. It's been one of out little problems to solve. We have a relative who has a Hiab crane, who we will get to try to lift it out, and some people who have bought some of our old antique furniture off us are willing to take the stove. The angle getting into the landing will make it an interesting exercise getting the stove out. I think it's a good thing we have left it until the last minute to get out, as I have visions of the stove swinging around and demolishing the old decrepit stair case. I will be away on Wednesday when he is coming, so will have to rely on mum taking some photos or clips of the process.

Now that we have a moving date, I rang the plumber to arrange disconnection of the water and sewer and will get him to install a garden tap so we can still shower in the van. I'm also going to check with my BIL, who is an electrician, about whether we can save the telephone wire and temporarily run it across the ground to the van so we still have phone and internet. I will kindly ask our elderly neighbour if we can run a lead from her house to the van for power. I don't think she will have a problem with it and will pay her for the power we use.

I was unsure of what degree of accuracy we need to have with the location of the house (so long as we don't encroach the council regulated 6 m setback). The house relocater has a fairly laissez fair approach of he'll drop it where we mark with a peg that we want it. The certifier, however, requires a survey certificate if there are no survey pegs indicating the correct position of the building. So I checked with our surveyors (who also prepared our DA) about getting the site surveyed now rather than later, when it would have to be anyway. They will liaise with the relocater about whether just marking the corners of the new proposed lot 2 is enough or whether we require a full set out.

Our surveyor/town planner also thinks that the DA shouldn't take too long. Council have until tomorrow to submit an information request before it goes to the decision stage.

 

[brendio]

The Wood Stove

Our relative dropped by today to have a look at the old wood stove and the challenge it will be getting it out. Did I mentioned it is heavy? It took all our effort to budge it about a centimetre. Our relative has arranged to get some lifting straps off a friend. He has chains but reckons it's less likely to slip with straps. The major difficulty is the angle getting the crane in. We will have to lift it up on a couple of pipe or something and then drag it forward. He was thinking of putting some blocks in the top steps and making a platform to drag it out onto and lift it with the crane from there. The top steps aren't as degraded as the bottom ones so hopefully it will hold the weight.

Photos: The rickety back stairs with the stove up top. I removed the security screen door and sliding door from the top of the stairs (photo 1) and removed the top and the doors from the stove (photo 2). The doors themselves have a bit of weight in them, but the stove is still heavy without them.

Did I mention the stove is heavy?

 

[Perchy]

Thank you for sharing your journey with us, its been a great read! Looking forward to more

 

[brendio]

I got back today so missed most of the action. Apparently the stove moving went of without a hitch. There is a video, but I haven't seen it yet.

The insulation we ordered from an ad in the paper finally arrived. We ordered it before Christmas but it didn't show up then. We got the flat part of our ceiling insulated back when the government was handing it money. Since they will be taking the roof sheets off anyway to install the cyclone tiedowns, it's a good chance to put in insulation in the raked parts of the ceiling which were missed.

The came this morning to cut off the water mains. I arrived home in the afternoon. We have a big pile of giant Jenga blocks in the yard ready to jack up the house. Electricity company came and cut off power and took the meters. I visited our kind neighbour to arrange plugging our van to a PowerPoint at her place. I also ran the old phone line over to the van.

They will remove the battons and the like from under the house tomorrow and load the truck up on Monday. Moving day is planned from 6am Tuesday. It's the biggest house the relocaters have moved for a while, so they are planning to take lots of photo to promote on their website.

It other news, I got an email from our town planner to say that council have not issued a request for more information so our application is now up to the decision stage.

 

[Annietom]

gee, so organised, this is like listening to a good song, so easy! As for council - YIPPEEE!

 

[brendio]

House relocaters have started

The house relocaters dropped the truck off this morning, went away to finish off another job, and then came back and started removing the batons and shower from under the house. They also cut through the steel bars holding the house down to the stumps (just as there are cyclones off the coast).

While they were working, we finished clearing out under the house. A lot of stuff is now sitting out in the yard covered by tarps.

The surveyors came in the afternoon and pegged out where the house will go and also the corners of the proposed new allotment (just the one for the house at this stage to satisfy the building certifier).

The relocaters will come back on Monday and lower the house onto the truck and then start moving on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they'll dig the holes and hang the stumps, arrange for the certifier to inspect on Thursday and then pour either that afternoon or on Friday. It will then take a few days to install the cyclone tie downs to the rafters.

It all sounds good in theory. The weather forecast for next, however, says rain is coming.

The electrician is coming tomorrow to see what needs to be done to get the power hooked back up. This afternoon, a different electrician's ute rocked up, and we were confused as he wasn't who we had booked. He saw the house getting ready to be moved and came to ask us if we were subdividing. He's looking for a bigger block to fit a shed on. I showed him the plan and took his card.

I have also set up a website and done up a newsletter to print tomorrow and drop in the neighbourhood letting them know about the development and giving them a chance to lodge an expression of interest. Let me know what you think of the site. It's not fully finished yet, but enough is there to go live. I checked the email account for the submission form for the first time in a while (as I only had it at a temporary address) and found that someone had already filled it in.

We have been getting a lot of looks from passers-by. We are camped out in the van. It's quite odd to be camping in your own yard.

 

[Annietom]

that's fantastic, and website is awesome. I think you've set the benchmark on how wonderful a website should be!

(and here I was thinking brendio was for brenda, not brendan!!

good work mate!

 

[Perchy]

simple but effective.. love the logo!

 

[Perchy]

btw, what is your profession, if you weren't doing this development that is.

- graphics artist?
- web designer?
- storyteller?
- builder?
- lawyer?

Sorry just curious, you don't have to say

 

[brendio]

Another potential buyer

Continued with sorting up of accumulated stuff. We have a shipping container to keep stuff out of the weather, but it is getting pretty full. Today, we rigged up a tarp on the side of the container to protect the stuff that won't fit in. We got some rain and quite a bit of wind today, so good to have that set up.

We had another drive-by interested buyer. Just wait until we start advertising! On that front, I distributed about 50 newsletter-type flyers to our neighbours informing them of the development. Our development is only code-assessable, so doesn't require a public notification period. People can see something is happening here, so I thought it polite to keep them informed. Plus I used the opportunity to call for expressions of interest from more potential buyers. The neighbours are in the best position to know what a nice area of town it is, and even if they are not looking to buy, they may know someone who is.

Perchy, I'm a freelance editor for a chemistry journal. That work is pretty slow at the moment, so it's good that I have project management work to fall back on.

 

[brendio]

Sunday's a day off for me, but I did get two voicemail messages responding to my newsletter drop for expressions of interest and yesterday's interested buyer buyer came back to say he's spoken with the wife and to put him down for lot 5. We haven't even set a price yet!

Work starts again at 6:30 in the morning. They are hoping to load it on the truck tomorrow. However, the forecast is for thunderstorms, so that might delay things ...

 

[brendio]

The truck is in place. Watch my live web cam feed.

 

[Annietom]

hey B, nice to see sales already creeping up, love the live cam thing too!

very high=tech!

 

[brendio]

Ready to move tomorrow

The weather stayed mostly fine. There was a bit of early drizzle, but it didn't hold things up too much.

They finished removing the batons under the house and smashed and removed the middle row of stumps to allow the truck to reverse in. It took a bit of back and forth to get it in and the trailer extended, but they seemed to manage it all with no dramas. At once stage they were thinking they could even move today to avoid some of the bad weather coming, but they are a bit worried about getting bogged, so want to leave enough time in the day to be able to call in an excavator to tow the truck out if need be. So they'll go tomorrow.

They put outriggers on the trailer and two long beams sit length ways on them and then five I beams run cross ways.

Our stuff is still in the house. We have laid most of the furniture down and they have put nails in the wall to tie up some other pieces to stop them falling over. They will leave the windows on the side of the house open to stop them breaking if the house flexes when it is loaded.

They will start tomorrow at 6 am lifting the house onto the truck and knocking down the remaining stumps. They will then lower the house and move it to the new site, taking it nice and slow. We have set up a couple of forms for all the onlookers to sit on. I had a chat with some of the neighbours who were out watching on as they backed the truck in.

They will move tomorrow, even if it's raining.

Photos: Backing the truck in; view underneath the house (note the survey peg for the corner of the to-be-subdivided block); lifting down the stove last week.

 

[Annietom]

moving house

hi brendan, Isn't it amazing to watch! Did you see that episode on Grand Design Australia? I'm refering to the one on the Gold Coast where they did exactly what you are doing by moving the house a few metres on the truck. I think you can see it online??? (Southport house)

Anyways, I only mention it because you said you are leaving all items in the house. They did this too, but when the truck lifted it, and started moving forward the house nearly snapped in two because of the weight from the bathroom, and furniture etc over the unsuported part of the house, they madly rushed inside (whilst on the truck) and threw everything out on the lawn (or to the supported part of the truck was to keep it heavy in the right places, and light where it didn't have support). I just thought this might help you with this exercise...

I'll see if I can find the episode on line - it's an inspirational development, similar to yours!

TRY HERE
http://www.lifestylechannel.com.au/granddesigns/episode-3-southport-heritage-house.aspx