Deterioration

This huge house is slowly succumbing to the elements. What I find remarkable about it is that it has been left like this despite it being huge, in a really posh expensive area with the back garden backing onto the river... (This photo was taken from the CityCat)  I'd say that water tank has been there since the floods a year ago. It might not even belong to the house.

Maybe it costs too much to repair but the owner can't knock it down because it is heritage listed? What a great place it must have been once.

An old favourite revisited...

 

It's been a while since I paid this house a visit. It looks like it's been through a bit a bit since then - probably flood damage judging from its location, although the roof looks like something heavy has fallen on it. It's surprising they haven't bulldozed it and stuck a block of flats there, given that it's in a prime location close to the river and the city. 

I love how disgracefully it has been allowed to age!

Rusty Gate

 

1000 images today!

The jacarandas are in bloom everywhere in Brisbane at the moment. The evenings are warming up nicely and the weather radar has started to get a bit more interesting with storms starting to come through. Yesterday (while I was at work and couldn't get out with my camera) there was a huge hail storm on the south side of Brisbane blanketing a huge area with piles of hail stones. It looked like snow it was amazing.

So today is my 1000th post - HURRAY!! I'm going to use the occasion as an excuse to take a break for a while and have a bit of a blogging holiday. As those of you who do a daily photo blog know, it can be very time-consuming and hard work. So unless I have a little gem on my memory card that I can't wait to share with you, I'll be off until the December 1st theme day... when, if I may mix my animal-related metaphors for a second, I shall be back roaring like a Bengal tiger and ready to get the bit between my teeth. So until then, enjoy your Spring or Autumn depending on where you are and I'll see you on Brisbane's first day of summer.

Yeehaah!

Homecoming

As the moon rose on Saturday night, a few of us gathered to welcome the owners back to their house after a 7 month displacement across the road. 

At the height of the flood, they had canoed around the neighbourhood via back gardens and between houses - taking an unfamiliar route not dictated by paths. The water level here was about two thirds of the way up the windows of the upper floor. After the flood, the old wooden house had groaned and creaked and twisted itself dry. It became a higgledy-piggeldy house where no door fitted its frame, no wall was straight and no floor was even. From the vantage point of their little rented cottage across the road, they watched the builders come in and slowly, bit by bit, straighten the place back out again.

Now, they are back home and the place looks great. The walls are straight and, as we found out, the floor smooth enough to do the twist on.

There's An Aussie-Coloured House And Matching Tree on Caxton Street

Through The Window Skywatch

I caught the 199 back to West End the other day

Settled down in a window seat

Excellent for people watching

Or nice-house spotting.

But on this particular afternoon

The streets were eerily quiet

And the houses were cloaked in winter shadows

The sky didn't want any distractions

So I set about giving it my full attention.

*part of Skywatch Friday*

Flood Proofing, Queensland-style

 Queensland homes are traditionally built on stumps. It has for some time been the trend that people with enough money would raise the level of their home in order to make way for a couple of rooms underneath. Round our way in Hill End, people are going up to escape another inundation.

Unfortunately for me, I live in a brick and concrete block of units so we're rooted. (To the ground).

Third time's a charm.

The old house in the block behind ours, empty for so long, is now being pulled apart.

It was such a great old house, full of character. It's beaten the odds twice since I've started this blog. The first time here. Then again here. This time there was no notice of intent so nobody saw it coming.

See also A-M's post about it from yesterday here.

Flood Rebuild Update

We went around to what is left of my friend Bron's place on Sunday. The January flood waters came about 3/4 of the way up the walls of her wooden house causing the floor and the walls to warp. After plenty of to-ing and fro-ing with the insurance company, work finally started in earnest about 10 days ago. The builders are pretty much starting from scratch so while it's something of a shock to see the shell where her home used to be, it's also a new beginning.

Their place is in the 3rd photo down on this post from January.

If You Go Under The House Today...

...you'd probably be best wearing protective gloves.

Here we are under the house - not my house, my friend Bron's. It's a typical Queenslander house which means it is elevated on stumps. Her place was largely submerged in the recent floods. What was once a smooth packed dirt floor is now rock-hard, lumpy dried-up mud... and that door has seen better days (see below for close-up). I have noticed that hollow doors like this don't seem to bow straight away after the waters recede. It takes a couple of weeks to get them to this level. On the plus-side, the builders turned up yesterday to check the place out  and are ready for a complete makeover. And one day all of this flood business will be a distant memory.

                   

A River Runs Through It!

There is a lake of water in our street right now...

Some houses didn't fare too well (you can just make out the roof of my flats beyond the white house) but the peak was a metre less than we had feared. We can't get around to check right now but we think probably about 30cm/a foot of water got above our floorboards.
(That's up 2 flights of stairs from the carpark)

Friends of ours who live in the house with the maroon coloured roof have water 3/4 of the way up to their ceiling. We helped them scramble out of their house with all their most treasured possessions on Tuesday night. It took us all by surprise...

Luckily the waters are receding quickly and the weather this morning is beautiful. I'm hoping to get into our place tomorrow or saturday. The community atmosphere is amazing. We have had lots of offers of help and support from people all over the place. Thanks to everyone.

It's all good!

This is the view from my bedroom window. The palm trees and the tin-and-timber house on stilts are a common sight all over Queensland.

Rule Of Thirds

Queenslander houses are a part of Brisbane's heritage yet Brisbane City Council seems hell bent on getting rid of as many as possible in order to squeeze blocks of flats in. There is a law in place to protect any pre-1946 dwelling... but unfortunately the council have acquired and bulldozed the house which stood on the right hand side of this picture a few weeks ago to build a roundabout. The act of doing this means that there are only two period houses left in this pocket of West End. Now here's the thing: some bright spark made a rule that if there are less than 3 pre-1946 houses in a cluster, the protection doesn't apply. So. Within a week of the council knocking down the house on the corner, a developer had swooped in, presumably offering a very sweet offer to the current owners, and the application to demolish the two house in the picture in favour of apartments is in the pipeline. 

Decision will be made by the council in two weeks.

Raise High The Floorbeams, Carpenter

Traditionally, houses in Queensland were built for the hot climate. They raised the floor to let the cool air flow under the house and for the rooms above to catch more of a cooling breeze. I've been to houses here where, in the summer, you spend most of your time underneath the house rather than in it. People move couches down there and beer fridges and you still have laundry hanging or perhaps a car parked.

I suppose now that space is becoming more of a premium in Brisbane (and that there's air conditioning), people feel that they could be better using that space under the house so they are doing "Up and Unders"; raising the entire house so that the space underneath is of legal height to build an enclosed lower level, this making the house 2 stories.

Q. Can I Take a Gander Round Your Verandah?

A... Only if it's house-trained. (boom boom!)

Queenslander houses are built on stilts to welcome any available breeze. Many have them have these great little verandahs which would definitely the place to be for me on a warm summer evening... perhaps with a nice cold drink and a few snacks, watching the world go by.

Doorways of Brisbane

I must admit to having a bit of a fixation with this house. I have taken lots of photos of it and always thought it was derelict until Thursday when I took this and suddenly noticed somebody inside...oops!


Thanks for visiting! I'm away at the moment... back on Tuesday 12th Jan

His and Hers Queenslanders

Queenslander houses, made mostly from wood, are about as fire-prone and termite-prone as houses can get, they're hot in the summer, chilly in the winter with no soundproofing... but it doesn't stop Queenslander people being fiercely loyal to them. You don't really see them being built any more but there are thousands around town in various states of repair from lovingly restored to falling apart. No matter where they are on the scale, they really have an unmistakeable character and charm.

Traffic Stopping Art (number 36)

Here we are in Ashgrove on the corner of Waterworks Road and Stewart Road. It looks like we have a traffic signal box and a matching... something else box. Anyway they are called "My Ashgrove" by Anna Claudette Ferguson and reflect the architecture of Brisbane's Queenslander houses. Painted in 2007 and still looking good.

Pink Cloud over Red Hill

Brisbane is made up of hills. You might just be able to make out the gradient of this road I was standing at the top of last night around 6.15 - it's really steep! This area is known as Red Hill. the house to the right of the picture is a typical Queenslander - wooden with stilts, gables and a tin roof.