timber 2....

This the back of the house now. It is unfinished as yet, it hasn't been clad, although we were plastering the day I took this. Plastering is a trade that requires equanimity, it is designed to test friendships to the limit, and the sound proofing of the building. Fortunately the house is fairly soundproof, the air inside was electric some times.
Sunny winter's day, birch still leaning. There is a simple reason for this tree leaning over. Near the corner of the house was a 30m liquid amber tree, just under the piles of timber in the picture below.
This tree was removed to make room for this extension. The birch had grown up in the shade of the liquid amber, and to get to the light had to grow outwards. Only when the liquid amber was removed did the birch become a problem. Besides it was not a healthy tree, the possums had eaten the top shoots and the tree was dying from the extremities back, the core of the trunk was rotted out, and the roots were intertwined with the remnants of the liquid amber roots, which were removed by this machine.
This is a good way to make mulch.

The north wall of the house is 4m to roof, double glazed and with several layers of wall insulation under the plaster. The large overhang is supposed to shade the wall in summer. We will see. The metal sheet cladding is not on yet. The black lining is 18mm chipboard, painted with bituminous paint for water proofing.
This day a man and a machine pulled up at the neighbour's house.
The sun came out for awhile...
A man began to climb the tree...
Higher...
And then he started his chain saw...
Down came the tree, branches first...
Then gradually the trunk was whittled back...
More and more. The rain had set in by now...
Not much to go...
Going, going...

Gone.