Disaster Cottage is owned by friends Deborah and Joe and it’s walking distance from our current rental. Like us they bought a very neglected house in need of much love and work. Luckily they are great talented people who will do their best at creating a long lasting, beautiful and loving home. It’s been great to know them as like us they’ve going through similar experiences and it’s been great to share tips, tools and know how etc.
Today while excavating their basement they had an internal wall collapse. Luckily they knew the tell tale signs of a wall collapsing and got out of the way quickly. Like one of our walls that collapsed, before the structure finally went, they heard a sound very much like rain drops, which must be the stone or mortar bonds breaking. Unlike us their wall came crashing down sideways, ours merely dropped but stood vertical. Glad to say that everyone got out of the way, a little shocked but safe – the house is still standing.
The house is possibly unsafe to enter so they are have some structural engineers looking at it tomorrow. Combined with the fact that the foundations of the house and sill plates are in pretty bad condition, the house is basically a shell, the roof needs replacing and the house is tilting is leading Joe and Deborah to consider whether it’s easier to pull the house down, put in a sound basement and rebuild in the same style. Difficult questions, especially when you’re artists and your income has been destroyed by covid.
