It was already last weeks of July, and we had bought already our return tickets back to Tbilisi, Georgia, and there was still one urgent task to complete if we wanted our rural house to survive upcoming rain and winter season - we had to replace roofing.
Oh, boy - back then I had no idea how frustrating, yet fun experience it will be. After finishing temporary repair works at home's first floor - I went upstairs and decided it's time to clean house's loft before moving on to more drastic roofing works. Instead of removing just old junk from loft, we had to remove about a ton of bricks and about 2 tons of ... soil. For some reason, the previous owner (R.I.P) decided to insulate loft with plain soil. I started to dug... gosh...
Bricks and junk at loft
As you can see its hard to call this place a loft, its more some construction which needs urgent repair. That huge construction you can see in background is called a mantel chimney:
Fireplace mantel or mantelpiece, also known as a chimneypiece, originated in medieval times as a hood that projected over a grate to catch the smoke. The term has evolved to include the decorative framework around the fireplace, and can include elaborate designs extending to the ceiling. Mantelpiece is now the general term for the jambs, mantel shelf, and external accessories of a fireplace. For many centuries, the chimneypiece was the most ornamental and most artistic feature of a room, but as fireplaces have become smaller, and modern methods of heating have been introduced, its artistic as well as its practical significance has lessened.
Nothing artistic here
Leaky roof and rotted floor
Due to the leaky roof and additional weight of soil on lofts floor its completely damaged and must be replaced anytime soon. Our goal at this stage was to change roofing to stop further damage to the house.
My weak attempts to dug off soil from lofts floor
I was so naive and thought that I'll be done in couple of hours.. ha ha ha
Bricks from the loft stacked outside
All I was able in couple of hours - to remove about one third of bricks from loft. We have an idea for the next Summer to re-use these bricks by building open furnace in garden.
I dug twice - once at the loft, second a pit for the soil from loft
Naive, what else can I add to this?!
Stay tuned, it's just gets starting to be interesting!