Laundry ironies

Perhaps you think that since all the hard work of last week I have been lying around recovering and reading trashy novels. Those of you who have experience renovating or who have large gardens know that the task is never done. There is a hierarchy of need: the things that absolutely have to be done by a specific time followed by the things that would be nice to get done by that point; followed by all the rest including the things like mowing and laundry that are on the permanent job list.

Removing the current laundry was essential for the house arrival, as was moving the greywater tank and the water tank. The water tank is still stubbornly resisting moving. That is the task for tonight after Mr. Blithe gets home from work unless we are washed off our hill by the predicted rain. Yes, heavy rain and “gusty storms” are predicted. Our only hope is that like the storms of yesterday, these will largely pass us by. The bulldozer driver is coming by late this afternoon to make an expert assessment of whether he feels that he can tackle the hill in these conditions. We have heard nothing yet from the house movers so we assume they are waiting to see what happens this afternoon as well.

The back of our house is a bit of an archaeological dig at the moment with all the tasks in progress. One of the “wish list” tasks has been the removal of various concrete slabs and paths that we don’t want under the new house. We are trying to avoid creating termite superhighways. These extra few days have given us time to work on removing these. There is also still the remains of the original stand-alone laundry at the very back of the property. We have been slowly dismantling it over the last few years. It turns out to have a double concrete floor – concrete pavers laid on top of 15-20 centimetre thick concrete. Mr. Blithe broke up much of this with the jackhammer and I have discovered an unexpected talent with the pinch bar, disassembling these. If I need a job, perhaps I could go for a life in crime as one of those crowbar enforcers. We’ve been shifting this concrete to the front yard for our winter project of making a sinuously winding path through yet-to-be completed raised garden beds. The path will terminate in a paved terrace overlooking the valley. Dreams, especially garden dreams are very nice.

One of the interesting finds, other than the maze of concrete work that we never suspected existed (including the original patio and sill for the stairs under the concrete of the attached laundry) is that much of the concrete in the oldest laundry was reinforced by what seems to be old iron barrel hoops. The photo below is of some of them: if you have any suggestions as to what else they might be, please let me know.