House lifting has begun

Just under a year ago, after we had had a large gathering in the beach house for my mother in law's 90th birthday celebration, we discovered that it had subsided some 5 or more centimetres. meaning that a planned new kitchen was put on hold (and still is!!!). Builder's reports, geotech engineer's report, structural engineer's repeated reports (!), arborist's report, and architect's drawings and negotiations with council meant that six months or more later we had both resource consent and building consent to lift the house off its piles, move it 1.5 m away from the cliff back toward the road, and renovate the damaged back of the house. Back equals the cliff side, where we spend most of our time when there.

By yesterday the builder had removed the decks which would have been in the front of this shot, and taken away the illegally constructed (by previous owner) underhouse area (which we have approval to replace with a proper Yoga room and office/storeroom). This morning (after we had to remind the electricity supplier they had agreed to disconnect the power!), the house lifters started work. So far they have lifted the house about 0.3 m, and will be lifting a further 1.5 m or so over the next few days to allow machinery in to put in new piles. They have also moved it towards the road by almost 4m (it will come back again once the new piles are in place).

As I said the deck has gone, making the house look even more drab than it did. The big pohutukawa on the right is protected and will remain a source of (often welcome) shade on the new deck. This face of the house has been completely redesigned although the basic format of kitchen on left and living area on right remains. Just another 3 - 4 months to completion, all going according to plan. I will keep interested parties entertained with occasional progress blips and a grand final blip when it is completed.

Wet this morning, and when I went on a midday run (peeved about losing a whole lot of work through not pushing save (I know I know; S has repeatedly told me and I repeatedly know better)), the images I got were no competition for this taken when we went north to see what had happened today.