More renovations afoot

We took over out little spot at Man Kok Tsui ten years ago this year.   When we first took it over it was a damp, rotting and crumbling shed with a very shaky wooden lean too roof, no kitchen and a bathroom that was of a rustic theme to say the least.   The loo ran on pond water, there was no potable water and the electrical wiring was a mix of old and frayed wires connected by equally fragile looking ceramic switches that were last used on a Frankenstein movie set.    The windows were so rusted they could not close and the front door simply was not there.    Inside were three rooms, each with a mini cock loft.   

Behind the house the slope supporting wall had collapsed and backfilled to a height of almost two metres, so much so that it could almost have been said that the house was holding up the retaining wall.    Inside, it was so damp that when it rained the water would drain through the house wall into an indoor gutter, yes and indoor gutter! that ran along the floor next to the wall and out through a hole in the front wall.

Over time, we have slowly improved and made good.   We now have a kitchen and a bathroom.   We have potable water, three phase electrical wiring.    The retaining wall behind the house is now back where it should be and the house no longer holds the wall up.   The damp has gone and with the new windows and doors it is surprisingly cosy.

How it was in 2008

How it was in 2009

How it was in 2010

How its going to be in 2018
Well, the plan is simple.   Because the house roof is made of wooden beams holding up three layers of roofing materials, starting with wriggly tin then poured concrete on top of that and then a second tin roof a few inches above (presumably to create some sort of heat insulation) we have decided it is best to rust seal seal the upper roof to prevent it self destructing and then build a fourth roof to cover not only the existing buildings but also the open areas to the front.    This should create a much larger living space in front of the house.   Here goes nothing.

 

What Wood Yew Do?

Loaded into the truck

What does over 1000 square feet of rescued teak planking look like? At first glance, not much we thought but it certainly seemed to get bigger and heavier as the day wore on.

The plan is to clean it all up then cut it into small lengths and make a rustic kind of parquet flooring for the three bedrooms and if any of it is left over then maybe make some sort of wood floor for the bathroom too.

My DIY prowess is dismal to say the least so thus could either be a massive surprise or a complete disaster...

High tide but boatman refused to go
to let us off load there 

The first sampan load on the pier

Off to fetch the next load

The stack just seemed to grow and grow

Another consignment of STUFF

One tennis court sized, antique Chinese bed plus enough crockery to host a wedding plus boxes of pictures and ornaments and stuff delivered by sampan  and now ensconced in our little kingdom.    As an added bonus the papaya trees were bulging with huge juicy fruits.  Must have been 40 kilos of fruit

Mui Wo Recreation Centre - An End of an Era!

The end of an era.   The most happening place in Mui Wo finally succumbs to the wrecking ball.  What will the new one look like, I wonder?

Photo Update, Man Kok Tsui

Whats a normal day for us?

0830 Take kids to school by bicycle

0845 Collect two door frames from wood shop

0900 Collect 21 bags of cement from builders yard -about 1100 kgs in all

0915 Load all onto a very wobbly sampan then set off in very windy and rough seas

0930 Clear up dog sick from sampan (dog sea sick)

0931 Arrive at pier and unload all the stuff at the pier and cart across the beach to the house

1100 Collect 3 times the amount of cement in beach sand and cart to house by bucket loads

1400 Walk back to Mui Wo and collect bicycles

1500 Collect kids from school

1600 Start work in office answering UK emails

Is it worth it? We reckon it is. It's still a work in progress and it's not everyone's cup of tea. We are well aware of that fact but we really enjoy the place and its as unlike Hong Kong as you care to imagine. No cars, no buses, no noise, no people, no shops, no cinemas, no hassle.

Water is free, vegetables and fruit are grown free, (so far lemon grass, ginger, limes, papaya, aubergine, chilli, Thai basil, etc.)

We have a phone line, we have electricity, we have govt water if we connect to it, we have sewage, the bins are emptied weekly and the beach is cleaned weekly etc. etc.

During the week you can expect to have two or three hikers walk past the house (most of whom are lost) and of a weekend you may get a couple more on mountain bikes.

Post is left in Mui Wo, at one of many letter boxes nailed to a tree at the start of the footpath across the headland.

These photos are not in the best order but you can start to see the house taking shape at last.

The renovations update

Well cash is tight - what's new? But we are plodding on.

The back walls of the house, kitchen and bathroom are now cleared back to their original width and the accumulation of dirt and rubble that had been pressing against them has been cleared away. A massive, manual effort as we had no access for diggers or excavators. We estimate about 3 feet by 3 feet by 80 feet of soil and back fill was cleared away. Whats that in volume about 480 square feet, wow nearly the same volume as a local flat here in Hong Kong!

The slope behind the house is now cut back to a safe distance and has been reinforced with a cladding of wire netting over poured with concrete. Weep holes are also now in the wall to allow any accumulation of water to escape out rather than backing up behind the concrete (as it was before).

The back walls have been repaired and additional brickwork added to fill up the holes left behind by the excavations. The whole of the exterior of the house is now ready for final painting.

The kitchen has been designed, delivered, installed, argued over and then partially re-installed after the stirling efforts of probably the worst kitchen fitter ever to have graced Hong Kong (and I do not mean me or Nuch). A relative of Ray Charles I reckon.

The bathroom has been rebuilt and tiled and now sports a new shower and sink but we note now that the floor may need to come up and be redone as our intrepid workmen set the floor to slope away from the floor drain. Indeed it slopes in exactly the opposite direction.

We have all the shower fittings and the sink fittings ready to be plumbed in but as the water is not connected yet we are awaiting that to occur first.

Talking of water, we have re dug two wells, one for flushing water and one for boiling water. Both wells will need clearing every sixth months as the weed growth is pretty rapid. The main potable water is till being supplied from a third well much higher up the hillside and is providing clear, sweet and consistent water.

Inside the house the floors have been re levelled and all the old hollow concrete removed and replaced. Whereas before there was in internal and open gully to take away the water that was leaking in through the back walls, we have now hopefully stopped the leak by digging back the debris outside, resealing the walls and floor and also adding a polythene liner under the floor. Let's see.

The windows are in as are the front doors but due to the odd decisions of others we note that the mosquito doors are upside down, an easy fix but it does mean more concreting etc. Amazingly when you look at the house the windows appear to be crooked but in fact the windows are vertically aligned , just the walls are not!

The outside sitting areas are now fifty percent re floored, the covered area in front of the kitchen and bathroom has been completed and we will have this completed with a waist height wall to enclose it to the front. The remaining outside area will be re-floored this coming week.

Also now completed is a rejuvenation of the front parapet wall which was rather badly finished and rough. A new facade wall of bricks has been built up in front of it which will be cemented over next week ready for painting to match the house.

What's left, well the electrics and the plumbing and the internal decoration. I would say we have broken the back of it now and although we don not have the cash to complete it just yet we estimate about a month's more work is needed.

Once all that is done we can think about furniture and a house warming party.

Its slowly appearing

Its odd how just seeing some tiles being cemented onto a bare wall can start to pull a project together. This week we hope to have the bathroom and the kitchen both tiled and ready for the fixtures and fittings. We have all ready had one calamity when the well meaning workers cut a hole through the tiles and the wall to accept the shower pipe. What was not accounted for was the fact we need two pipes, one for hot water and one for cold water. So off with the rather expensive tile, etc. etc. No complaints though. These things happen.

Picture on left is the bathroom, the area on the floor not tiled is where the shower stall will be placed. If you look closely you can see the offending hole in the tiles j(three tiles up) from floor level. The other hole (one tile up on right side) is correct and will be used for the sink fittings.

The other picture is of the kitchen space. The kitchen will be open plan and open directly onto the covered living space. The tiling is correct but looks a little odd. We have used cheaper and smaller tiles to cover the walls in areas that will be hidden by the kitchen cabinets and cupboards. Once all the kitchen fittings are installed only the larger, oblong shaped tiles will be left in view.

The unfinished brickwork corner will be continued up to provide some shelter and screen off where the fridge will stand within the kitchen area. Its hard to imagine I know.

The roof structure is basically a canopy roof that will later be lifted up a further two feet to allow greater height for air circulation by ceiling fans inside and will be decorated / covered over on the underside with tongue and groove wood slats to hide from view the iron support beams and the electrical wiring that will need to be thrown over.

Keeping the labour costs low

It has to be said that you get what you pay for. Obviously we have tried to keep out renovation labour costs to the minimum and we may have cut some corners but one thing is for sure we NEVER once complained when the workers were caught sleeping on the job!

Before and After

Although not taken from exactly the same spot, these pictures show how much effort has been put into clearing back the grounds and getting rid of all the mosquito breeding holes etc. To clear back this one piece of slope to its current state took a full day. Unfortunately the people who must have lived in the house at the top of the slope, (its completely abandoned now) must have literally just thrown all their garbage out of the window onto the slope as it was strewn with broken glass and debris. There must be about two or three sacks of broken glass still to be picked up. Stilll never mind it will all be worth it in the end.

Man Kok Tsui - Off with the Roof!!!

We spent Saturday knocking down the wooden roof structure at Man Kok Tsui. Hot and very dirty work but quite rewarding. We had been hiding from this task (or at least I had been) as I had no idea how easy or difficult it would. It turned out to be a doddle.

The roof was made of large 8 x 4 feet sheets of wood, covered with bitumen felt and then netting. We ripped off the netting and then used crow bars to pry the sheets up from the supports. The bitumen was so degraded it just ripped away. Once the roof was off we set about the beams and legs. Sorry no technical terms.

After much grunting and puffing we eventually finished the job in time to have an hour on the beach with the boys and the dog before jumping in the boat back to civilization.

Obviously and before anyone mentions it, the reason I am not in the pictures is I was taking them! . We think removing the roof has done a lot to reveal how much potential the place has. Next will be the wriggly tin affair on the left side of the house.

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