Weekend work for us

Once the first part of the plastering is done, the room that is the remainder of the second bedroom looks much too small to have a fireplace, so we decide to pull it out and remove the mantelpiece.
Filthy job, but someone has to do it.

And we want it done before the plasterers returned so that they can sheet over the hole, so that is our first Sunday afternoon activity.

In addition to demolishing the fireplace , we start on the low brick fence at the front of the house.
Why you ask?

The fence is a 50s addition that is not at all in keeping with the house, and although the original red-brick and terracotta capping has been painted the same colour as the house, it still looks pretty ugly.

At some point in a previous renovation, the original galvanised iron water pipe was replaced with copper, but instead of running it through the house where the old pipe was, they took the pipe along the inside of the front fence from the water meter to the side of the house, right down the side of the house and round to the back, making it vulnerable to vandals. Our neighbour had his similarly placed copper pipe cut and stolen from the side of his house.

The plumber has now brought the water pipe back to where it was when the house was first built, which is running down the hall under the floorboards. But the mains connection, which is a very messy collection of pipes, is still behind the front fence. We hope to be able to relocate it to the other side of the gateway, so that the pipe can go under the tiled veranda without having to wreck the mosaic tiles, which are original.

Some of the existing piping is actually embedded in the wall, so to find out what goes where, we decide to at least knock down the gatepost. Lacking a more appropriate tool, we bash it with the back of the axe. Hard work as the bricks and mortar are relatively modern, but by the end of the afternoon we have exposed most of the pipes, ready for the plumber to advise on whether the meter can be moved.