Michaels Mansion
Ernest Bywater
Michaels Mansion
All rights reserved and copyright © 2014
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. All rights are reserved by the author, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
Product names, brands, and other trademarks referred to within this book are the property of their respective trademark holders. Unless otherwise specified there is no association between the author and any trademark holder, nor are any expressed or implied. Nor does it express any endorsement by them, or of them. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark, service mark, or registered trademark.
Cover Art
The background images are Batlow by Leigh Blackall (top) and Looking East over the Murrumbidgee River near Gumly Gumly by Bidgee (bottom). Both are copyrighted by their creators and their use is allowed by the Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike Licence and terms. The cropping, size adjustment, and text are by Ernest Bywater. All rights to the cover images are reserved by the copyright owners.
13 April 2022 version
Published by Ernest Bywater
E-book ISBN: 978-1-312-43497-4
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Note: Due to the main character and the narrator being Australians UK English is used in this story.
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The title styles in use are a chapter, a sub-chapter, and a section.
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High resolution images of the rebuilt Manor floor plans (close to scale) and the new grounds (not to exact scale) are available in a folder at:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ebk8ve052m0c1rs/AACohN7e_x8OuRFrn0EbQ2L6a?dl=0
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Author's Note: In an early scene one of the pilots identifies the SAM (surface to air missile) as a Sidewinder as that's the type of seeking anti-aircraft missile they're both familiar with the capabilities of. However, the SAM is more likely to be a shoulder mounted SAM of either a US Stinger or a Russian Strela 3 called a 'Gremlin' by the NATO forces. This is not an attempt to mislead anyone, either within the story or any of the readers, but it's a demonstration of how, when in an emergency, people will fall back to using familiar terms carrying the most information they can.
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Oh Fuck!
It's half past eight in the morning of a bright and sunny Friday that's a very good day for Rivers Air Services as all of their planes are in use today. They recently bought a twenty-five year old Learjet 35A in very good condition and at a great price. Since the purchase it's had a complete overhaul and been painted in RAS colours so they now have two Learjet 35As. Today is the first flight of the new jet for RAS as it heads out empty to pick up some businessmen to fly them around the state.
Dave Owen is the pilot of Rivers Air Nine, the new Learjet, while it slowly moves down the taxiway to enter the active runway when given permission. Behind them are six other Rivers Air planes with the other Learjet as the last of the line to return three politicians to Canberra, the national capital of Australia.
Dave turns to his old friend and copilot, Peter Davis, as he says, “After all the trouble I had getting it for the company I'm glad I get to fly this bird at least once.”
Peter grins, “Yeah, we spend the next week playing air taxi then get home in time to park her in the hangar before we retire the next day. But it's well past time we both went for a long fishing trip.”
The two men are grinning at each other when they continue with the check-list while waiting for take-off clearance. A light aircraft lands and the controller comes on the radio, “Rivers Air Nine, clear to access the active runway.” After a few more words the Learjet is accelerating down the runway as if it's in a hurry to make its first flight for Rivers Air.
Control Consternation
John Baker is the Senior Controller on Duty at the Rivers Airport for this shift. He's very busy watching the runway and airspace around the airfield while the assistant controllers are managing the aircraft in their area of responsibility. He has his hand on the radio pack at his belt as he listens to the ground traffic while checking the sky for aircraft. There's nothing on radar, but this is how he was trained and it's how he works.
In the edge of his vision is the Learjet while it rises from the runway. It's no sooner in the air than Rivers Air Five, a DHC 8, is given access to the active runway to ready for their take-off. Suddenly John's attention is drawn to the light industrial area past the end of the runway.
Almost without thinking John is reacting to the sight while he's still trying to comprehend what he sees. His early air traffic control work was with the Royal Australian Air Force and it covered a lot of possible events. Now his extensive emergency training kicks in for the first time in anything other than the thousands of training situations he's been in.
John's headset crackles when his radio goes live and he says, “Rivers Air Nine break right, break right, SAM inbound.” He watches with his heart in his throat while the plane banks hard right. The rocket passes by very close to the plane then it turns to chase the plane. He watches as the pilot plays a very deadly game of tag with the surface to air missile. Three times the pilot creates a miss, but each one is less of a miss than the last one. Then both the plane and the rocket move out of his view when they move past the ridge to the west of the airport and his line of sight.
John is worried because the manoeuvring is taking the plane further over the city instead of away from it. But the pilot has no real choice in his actions to avoid the rocket. Now they wait to see what happens.
Behind John the assistant controllers are ordering all of the aircraft off of the field and they're passing word of the emergency to all inbound aircraft so they can head for alternative fields. One staff member is on the phone to the police as she tells them of the event.
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No Choices
When the Rivers City Airport was built it was just beyond the east edge of the town on what was originally a grass landing strip created by one of the area's early settlers. Since the airport's formal designation and construction the city has grown a lot with some of the area right beside the airport being used for industrial and commercial operations.
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Dave and Peter first teamed up in their twenties while flying light cargo planes for the Royal Australian Air Force. They got out after their twenty years and went to work for Rivers Air Service, employed by two of their friends who were also getting out at that time and had some big money as well as borrowing some more. Like John, the two pilots were never in a combat situation but have had the appropriate training for it.
The take-off is as smooth as silk and both are smiling while they do the rest of the check-list items. They both react instinctively to John's demanding, “Rivers Air Nine break right, break right, SAM inbound,” on the radio. Dave doesn't question the order and he goes in to the tightest right turn he can at this speed while Peter spins to look out the window.
Peter swears and says, “Sidewinder rising fast and closing from four o'clock low. Drop the nose.” Dave does as he's told and he angles down. “It's past, chase it.” They don't have enough speed up or height to outrun it so their best hope is to try and hide the engines from the heat sensors and to keep generating misses until the rocket runs out of fuel.
Dave concentrates on flying the aircraft in line with Peter's orders to generate a miss. They avoid it again, and again, and again. However, their turns are taking them out over the city and not away from it. Each miss is by a smaller margin each time, too. On the fifth approach the SAM is so close Dave rolls the plane a bit to make sure the wings don't get hit. Peter is watching to see which way it turns after passing them. But this time it doesn't as when it passes close to the tail it explodes with a boom much louder than the engines. The plane veers hard right just after the boom of the exploding rocket. Peter spins in his seat and he starts flicking switches while saying, “Engine one and tail gone.”
Dave nods while saying into the radio, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Rivers Air Nine is hit and going down. Lost tail and one engine.” He's fighting to trim the plane and get some glide out of it, but the loss of the tail is causing control issues while the one engine has to be throttled back to stop the plane from making spirals to the right. Both are looking for a place to put the plane down, and finding none - only houses.
The jet is falling out of the sky at an angle while both are scouring the area for any place that isn't houses, but that's all they see within the zone they can reach. Dave gives the engine a bit more power to turn the plane to change their view. A couple of large green areas come into view, but Peter says, “Forget those three. Two are schools while the third is the big park, and all three are already filling with people.”
Dave's reply is, “Fuck!” A bit more throttle and the plane turns. He spots another green spot that's much smaller than the others, but he can't see anyone on it. “What's that?”
“Looks like a huge yard. There's nothing better in sight, go for it!”
“You know, to make sure we hit that little spot we're going to have to ride her in steep and hard!”
“Yeah. But it's better to be just us than a city block full of people.” In order to reach the near edge of the chosen spot Dave goes into a steeper dive. The hope is to minimise the damage and risk to others by crashing into the ground instead of sliding along it. Seconds later the jet is passing over the trees at the rear of the house yard as it goes into a steeper dive to hit the ground at twenty degrees from vertical. The bulk of the plane ploughs into the ground to make a large hole. However, the mostly full wing tanks break off at contact to be flung forward and into the large house thirty metres ahead of their point of impact. The tanks go through the middle floor windows and burst open when they hit the interior walls. A moment later the building is a blazing inferno.
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Note: The police don't find out or catch who fired the missile at the plane or learn why they did it. So the case remains open.
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Morning Mayhem
Mrs Evelyn Murphy is sitting in her kitchen finishing off the glass of orange juice that's the remains of her breakfast when she hears a loud boom. After putting the glass down she goes out the back door to look around, but she can't see anything that's a likely cause of the noise. Then a movement in the upper corner of her vision has her turning to her left and looking upward. A plane is coming down at a sharp angle and it seems to be heading straight for her.
Realising the plane is going to crash close by she races to the side and kneels down beside the corner of the large sandstone garage and storage area which used to be the farm stables. The plane is now heading just a touch left of where she is, but she's sure it's going to hit within the property line. She ducks behind the corner to avoid being hit by the expected flying plane bits while she pulls out her cell phone. She's talking to the emergency services and telling them about the plane when she hears and feels it hit the ground. She stays where she is. After watching a few things bounce along the ground and hearing a few windows break she counts to ten then looks out at the yard. There's not much of the plane to see, just some wreckage in a hole it made in the middle of the backyard, but the main building is a blazing inferno.
Eve asks for the fire brigade and hangs up. She slowly walks out to see what she can while she calls her son. She also says a prayer of thanks for him insisting they move into the old five bedroom cottage four months ago when he started to plan some repair and renovation work needed due to finding termites in some of the ground floor woodwork. All they took was their personal effects, heirlooms, electronic gear, and white goods as they left the furniture to move when he started work.
The fire-fighters arrive in plenty of time to stop the fire spreading to other buildings, but not before it has a good hold on the main house building and it totally destroys the two hundred year old three story stone structure. However, when they do get the fire out the sandstone main walls are still sound and in place, just covered in soot. But it's gutted with a huge pile of ashes and debris on the ground level floor.
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Rebuilding & Safety Plans
Patrick Murphy-Michaels arrives home just after lunch due to his mother's phone call. He had wanted to spend the whole day on the uni campus doing some research for his studies, but he's put that off for now. When he drives in he can see a fire-engine and a police car sitting in the backyard of his house. After a few questions he learns the police are to see no one does anything to the aircraft wreckage while the firemen are to stay for the afternoon and evening to ensure the fire doesn't start up again.
After a short word about the events with his mother Pat leaves her supervising the men replacing the broken windows in The Stables and The Cottage. As he drives over to the Council offices he's glad he insisted they move into The Cottage until the full extent of the termite damage was known and fixed, otherwise his mother would now be dead.
He laughs when the radio plays the song Good News Week while he starts thinking it's a Good News / Bad News situation. The good news is the termite problem is now fixed and he can plan the new internal layout in whatever way he wants. While the bad news is the work is going to take a lot longer and cost a lot more to do than he can afford at the moment, so a lot of it will have to be done much later when he can afford to do it.
At the Council Pat asks to speak with the Council Heritage Officer and he's shown straight in. After the greetings he says, “I suppose you know about the fire.”
Henry Jamieson replies, “I think the whole state knows about it.”
“Right. You'll probably have to come out and take photos for your records, but the Mansion is gutted. Only the stone walls are standing. I want to rebuild it but I need to know what restrictions are on it due to the Council Heritage classifications and restrictions.”
“Well, our rules are because you're in the Heritage Control Zone. So you need to maintain the exterior visible from the street looking like the original. But the file says I need to check the state requirements, just a moment.” He turns to his computer to bring up a website. After few clicks plus a few minutes reading he goes to another website. He does some more reading on that site then he notes a phone number.
While he punches in the phone number Henry says, “The state rules on Heritage Listed houses are for renovations to have it remain looking as it was. What do you want to do?”
Pat grins, “I want it to have a new internal layout and to look like the original interior, not how granddad renovated it to in the fifties. But I can't afford to pay for it all to be done right now. So I want ...,” he stops because Henry is waving him to silence.
Into the phone Henry says, “Mister Ball, it's Henry Jamieson, the Rivers City Council Heritage Officer here. I don't know if you've seen the news, but we had a jet shot down over our city by a surface to air missile. This affects you because the plane crashed in the grounds of Michaels Manor which is in our Heritage Zone. The building's been gutted by fire and is just a shell. The current owner is asking what restrictions he has to abide by if he decides to rebuild it.” He listens for a moment then says, “I think you want to reconsider that because a previous owner did a lot of major renovations to modernise it in the nineteen fifties.” A bit more listening and, “Look, I'll put you on speaker-phone so Mister Michaels, the current owner, can tell you what he wants to do.” He moves the phone and pushes some buttons, then it's Pat's turn to talk.
“Good afternoon, Mister Ball, this is Patrick Michaels. Back in the fifties an ancestor redid the insides to be like a new house of that era. As well as the high cost involved I didn't like that look, nor the layout as he also changed the interior layout. No one has a copy of the original plans, just what he changed it to, but we do have some old descriptions of what it used to look like.” He stops while Mr Ball swears.
When Mr Ball slows down Pat continues, “I don't have the money to do a full rebuild at this time, or in the near future. So what I want to do is protect the site as best as I can then to rebuild it as I can afford to. To me, that means I need to clean it up and strip it back to the stonework. Then clean the soot etcetera off the sandstone, put a roof on it, install windows and exterior doors. Then take my time building the insides. The last thing I want is the last layout put in, so I want to redesign the inside and then build it to look the way original interior looked with all wood panelling and the like. However, to meet all the modern construction laws it will have to be modified a bit to incorporate modern amenities, but have them well hidden. So I want to have all the concealed framework made out of steel because there's a termite problem in the area.”
Mister Ball interrupts with, “The State Heritage Laws states all items must be maintained as they are or they're to be returned to their original condition, unless Ministerial approval is given and that takes months. There are no other options.”
Henry joins in, “Mister Ball, I don't think you fully understand the situation. The current state is a pile of ashes surrounded by bare walls. The state as of yesterday was nineteen fifties modern and nothing like the original construction in design or look. If you insist it be returned to the original design you will need to provide a full set of plans for it since we don't have them. The house pre-dates the Council by over a century.”
There's some more posturing by Mister Ball. Finally Pat is fed up and he says, “As I see things there are only three possible options. First is to do as I wish and stated to preserve what I can of the site then do a slow build out when I can afford to do it. Second is to have you send us a full set of plans with appropriate proof and certification they are the original plans and you provide the funds to build it that way. Third is I just leave it as is until the walls collapse due to weathering, then I can clean it up and have an empty block to build on. Please choose one.”
Henry looks aghast at the possibility of losing the most significant heritage site in the region due to some petty bureaucrat's attitude. He's about to object when Pat winks at him while giving a slow head shake. More words are said without any give by Ball before they hang up.
Pat says, “Look, Henry, I hate the idea of losing the Manor. But the insurance money won't payout enough to do a proper rebuild now, so I have no choice about doing a gradual build. I'll be able to clean it up and get the roof on and windows in so I can lock it up and protect it. I may even get the ground floor in, but that's all until I can afford more.”
Henry thinks for a moment, then he starts going through some books. After several minutes he makes a call to talk to the Council solicitor. After a long talk he calls the Council Manager and the Mayor for a talk with each of them. About an hour after he arrived Pat is walking out with a letter from the Council saying he has council permission to take whatever actions he needs to do to clean up and protect the site, but the action has to keep the exterior of the building looking like the original building so it'll meet the Rivers Council Heritage Zone Regulations.
The result isn't exactly what Pat wanted and he did lie a bit, but it's as close as he can get right now. It also allows him to get on with getting things done to protect what remains of the building.
Digging up the Land
Later Pat enters the offices of the family solicitors. As is usual with many law firms the name changes when partners are added or leave, so the firm started by two brothers as Malcolm & Malcolm has gone through many changes over the generations and it's now operated by four of their great-great-grandchildren. Pat knows the four chose the order the new partners were accepted because that changed the way the name read, so the firm of four cousins is now Malcolm, Dunn, Wright & Goode.
The receptionist knows Pat and she picks up the phone while saying, “Mister Michaels, Mister Dunn is expecting you. I'll let him know you're here.” Pat nods to her to acknowledge he heard her as he moves to the side while she talks on the phone.
A moment later William Dunn walks out to shake Pat's hand while he says, “When I heard about the fire I knew you'd be in.” He turns and leads the way to one of the smaller conference rooms, “The insurance people have already been out to inspect the building, so I expect their money to be through soon. It won't be enough to pay for a full rebuild but it will include some money for landscaping repairs.”
In the conference room there are several papers and folders set out on the table. Will points at one page while saying, “As you can see from the terms of the Trust there is a little more cash we can make available for major repairs, but it won't be enough. And there are no other significant assets to be sold to help out with the building costs.”
While taking a seat Pat asks, “Can I have a look at the actual trust deed, please?” Will opens the file, but he doesn't know what Pat is after. He has the Trust deed open for Pat, who reads it with care. Much of it is about the passing of the ownership to the eldest male of the line closest to the current owner when they die, which is why Pat inherited the Trust and property when his uncle died without having any kids. Then he's at the part he wants to see, the wording on the inability to sell the house:
Michaels Manor and the house paddock in which it sits is never to be broken up or sold. Appendix A shows the boundaries.
Pat turns to Appendix A, then he asks to see the full list of trust assets and a council map of the area around the house. Will still isn't following where Pat is going with this. Pat sits there very carefully comparing the two maps. He finally asks for a couple of copies of both maps so he can draw on them. Part of Pat's problem is the two maps are using different scales and that makes it hard to relate them to each other.
After about ten minutes of closely examining A3 sized copies of the maps Pat is able to clearly identify a couple of marker points on both maps to get an idea of how they relate to each other. He looks up at Will with a big grin as he says, “The first thing we need to do is get a good surveyor out to the site to mark every boundary corner while he does a current plan of the land involved.” Will gives a mild frown. “If I've read these right the family has been identifying the house paddock wrong for a few generations.” This has Will scrambling for the papers as his father told him the whole block of land the Manor sits on is the original house paddock. “The other day I was reading one of the old journals when I came across a reference about expanding the rear yard area by removing the sorting yard fencing and putting a fence up behind the line of wind breaking trees past the yards.” He taps the maps, “If I'm right, that means we can sell off about a quarter of the back area for cash.”
Will puts his assistant to work on sending a surveyor out to do the mapping and setting out of marker pegs before the two of them start to delve through the huge pile of files on the property. They're looking for the land identification on the asset lists to clarify just what is what as the last seven lists simply state: 'Michaels Manor and grounds.'
The pile of examined files is very large when Will exclaims, “Got it!” He turns the file around to show Pat an assets list from 1872:
Item 1: Michaels Manor and grounds consisting of the house paddock, the old sorting yards, the killers paddock, the horse run, woods and vegetable gardens paddock. See Appendix 1.
A flick to the appendix shows the original house paddock as being little more than the Mansion, Cottage, Stables, and the area in front of them to the road. Pat says, “I think we need to keep most of this, but most of what this has here as the killers paddock and horse run at the back of the property can be sold off for development. We'd want to keep most of the trees in place for privacy,” as Pat wants to keep the woods.
Both grin while they look at what the maps show them. Back in the nineteen sixties most of the farm was sold off for residential development for the fast expanding town that was turning into a city. The Mansion now sits in the middle of a huge swath of typical sixties housing estates with a street across the front and the rear of the property, plus houses along both sides of its two hundred and seventy-five metre width by six hundred and fifty metre deep property. What Pat is proposing is to sell off a two hundred metre deep segment across the rear of the property.
Normally you'd expect the rates for the block to be huge, but due to a deal struck with the Council when the farm was first sold for housing the Mansion and its grounds are still classed as a rural property. To sell this land they'll have to lodge a Development Application to cut off the back area for sale. However, the Council should agree because the new area will be rezoned as urban residential and that'll give them a very good rates boost.
Next door is the office of a local builder who's also a client of Will's so Will calls him and asks, “Serge, if you could buy land around Michaels Manor what would it be worth per house block?”
Serge Lebedev replies, “You have some land around there?”
“Yes.”
“I'll be there before you can finish pouring the coffee for me.”
Serge arrives just before Will's assistant walks in with the coffee. They show him the map and explain what they'd like to do. He grins as he says, “It would be a lot better if you can enlarge the depth to two hundred and fifty metres. That way we can include a nice playground in the middle of it, have fifty to sixty good house blocks consistent with the area, and be worth about six million to you.”
Both Pat and Will have huge smiles as that'll make a difference to their plans. Pat asks, “Who should we approach about buying this?”
Serge grins, “The new company I'm now a part of will do it. I'll talk to the senior partner and we can get you the cash as soon as we sign the contract. Heck, we'll even organise and pay for the DA.”
“What new company?” is Will's next question.
“All of us little builders in the city are merging into one company with Matt Dyer as our senior partner. This'll give us a shot at the government jobs and it'll keep our people working for many years to come.”
Pat says, “We've a surveyor booked to go peg the land for us and then we'll make a final decision. But I see no problem with expanding the size to two fifty deep. I'll also be seeking some advice and help from you about Michaels Manor because it's a fire-gutted ruin right now.”
“I heard about that, and I'm glad no one got hurt on the ground. Give me a call, any time, for advice or a quote.” He leaves with a huge grin because this will be a good project for the company right now.
Will turns to Pat, “Right. Leave that lot with me and I'll sort it out with the surveyor, Serge, and the Council. I'll also move a few hundred grand into the working account for now, since I know that's coming in.”
Tools of the Trade
On leaving the solicitors Pat visits Serge to get some advice on what to use to clean up the ashes in his house and suitable contacts to clean and seal it. A thirty minute talk convinces Pat he needs to have Serge put the new roof on but he should be able to do the rest himself, once he gets the right equipment for the work. Also, Serge knows just where he can get it at good prices, so they go shopping for a mini-excavator and a lift.
Twenty minutes later Pat and Serge are across the other side of the city looking at a two tonne mini-excavator sitting on a large trailer. It has all of the tools and attachments you could want for it in individual storage areas of the trailer. It's a great set up. The trailer is almost three metres long and sits on two axles with double wheels on each axle. Usually the trailers for excavators are open but this one is covered with locking panels on each side to allow access to get the accessories and tools out of the many built-in storage places for them.
The unit is in the driveway of a house and the owner is opening up the trailer for their inspection. Pat is surprised it's such a good unit and available at the price Serge mentioned, because it's almost new. He asks, “Are you sure of the price you gave me, Serge? This is way too good!”
“That's exactly why you'll pay twelve thousand for this.” Both Pat and the owner look up. “This is a professional set up and a pro would pay seventy grand for it brand new, if there was anyone after it. The problem Jack has is this outfit was bought by his brother for a specific need. Pros usually use three tonne or bigger units for the medium work and one tonne units for the light work. So this doesn't suit the pros. The few people who want one for home usage look to buy at under five grand. No one in the region is looking for a set-up like this, as Jack knows. To sell it for a fair price he'd have to take it to Melbourne or Sydney and then sit around for a few months until someone came along wanting a set up almost like this. Personally, I doubt they will because Jim made this outfit too specialised for his exact needs. Once this is sold Jack can close out Jim's estate. Now, I know you were thinking of spending about five grand for a used one tonne unit for your home task. But I feel this will be of more use to you and more versatile with the jobs you'll have to do. I think I can talk you into going as high as twelve grand, but I doubt you can pay much more than that so it's what I said. This helps you both out.”
Jack isn't too happy, but Pat just shakes his head and laughs before saying, “I bet you wouldn't have thought I could be expected to pay for twelve grand of gear if I'd seen you before talking to Will! I was thinking in the two to three grand range as I've seen one for sale at that price out near the uni.”
“I know of it, and that's where we'll go if you don't offer twelve or if Jack refuses it. But this is a lot better than that one and it suits your needs much more.” He turns to Jack, “Pat here is going to be doing an 'owner clean and fix' job at Michaels Manor as it's now a fire gutted ruin and he can't afford to pay me to clean it up. He has the time and he just needs the tools. This gives him the tools and saves him time too.”
Pat sighs and says, “OK. Jack, will you take twelve grand for this?”
Jack isn't happy but he says, “It's the best offer I've had in nine months, so yeah, I will. Give me a cheque and it better not bounce.”
Pat gives a wry grin, “If you use the local credit union we can go do an electronic transfer right now.” Jack nods yes, and the three are off to the credit union office in the one car. After few minutes with the teller the money is in Jack's account so he signs over sale documents with the serial numbers plus the registration papers and he hands Pat the keys.
When they drop Jack back at his home Pat makes arrangements to come back for the gear with the family SUV. The little four cylinder town car he's in won't shift it at all, but the big six litre SUV will.
The next stop is a cleaning contractor's premises. They park and Pat follows Serge in. When walking into the large garage area on the way to the offices Serge points at two scissor lifts set away from the rest while he says, “Those two don't meet the new state safety regulations for use by a commercial operator, but they're still legal for personal or private use. They're good for up to eighteen metres but I wouldn't use them for any job over fifteen. While your job is only twelve or thirteen, so you should be OK with the two of them. Offer Dan two grand for the pair and you should be right.” Pat diverts to give them a look over as Serge points out the key aspects of them while he tells Pat how to use them.
When they walk into the office Pat says, “OK, Serge, I'll offer two grand for both of those lifts. I think I can make on do the job with one, but two would make it a little easier with some of the work.”
Before Pat can be introduced to him Dan says, “Sold at two grand,” and makes them all laugh. The paperwork is soon done and Dan uses his EFTPOS system to process the payment charge on Pat's trust debit card.
Serge leads Pat to the large hardware warehouse just down the road and helps Pat to set up a trade account with the store before selecting hundreds of dollars worth of things he says Pat will need. First in the trolley basket is the protective equipment he'll need then the commercial grade tools he'll need to use instead of the home grade ones he has. Things like a battery operated power saw, heavy duty rakes, more chains etc. It all goes on the new account they just finished opening, thus saving quite a bit. After loading all of this in the car Pat thanks Serge for his time and help, then they go their separate ways.
A stop on the way home has the trailer registration transferred and renewed. A phone call to his insurance agent has the relevant insurance done for all of the new gear as well.
Pat parks the car and he takes off in the SUV to pick up the trailer with the mini-excavator. He arrives back home in time to see Dan unloading the two lifts. After Pat parks the trailer beside the garage Dan shouts to Pat, “I know you said you'd collect them tomorrow, but I wanted them out of the building today. So you get free delivery.”
They meet by the truck and talk while the driver and his helper do the work. They wander over to look at the Mansion. After a good look Dan asks, “Do you intend to clean all of the sandstone yourself?”
“No! I don't have the experience or know what to use. You best give me a quote for doing both the inside and the outside. But remember the inside isn't level because there's a basement under that lot as well.”
Dan makes some notes while saying, “We've a new low pressure spray unit that'll allow us to do the job from outside by remote control. I can stand here and work the arm after it comes in a window.”
Pat unloads the tools and gear into the garage then he parks the lifts in the spot the SUV normally uses before he goes inside The Cottage to tell his mother what's happened, and to help with preparing their dinner.
They watch the news over dinner. The lead news item is the plane crash and fire. Much is said about it, but no one knows much about it. The report states the Air Safety Investigation Team has arrived on site but they decided to leave looking it over until the next day.
After dinner Pat spends a lot of time on the Internet researching on things to do with rebuilding and renovating old buildings like this great mansion built by his mother's ancestor Patrick is named after.
The Michaels family was the first to settle in the area and named the house after the family name. The first buildings were rough-built wood structures. Patrick Michaels used the local sandstone to build the cottage and stables buildings, then more of the sandstone for the larger house he built decades later. The big house has been expanded twice using sandstone from the same quarry. They took care to have it look like it was all built at once, but, unlike he said earlier, Pat has the plans of the original building and it's expansions. The first one was only two stories high. Then it more than doubled in width and later the top level was added. In each case the interior was done with the local hardwoods and made to match the earlier work. Pat wants to rebuild it to look like the original but to be a lot more up-to-date and practical to use. He has no need to house dozens of farm and domestic workers, but he could do with some apartments to rent out as income.
Pat uses a Computer Design program to put in the dimensions of the building with the locations of the windows and exterior doors. He also includes the basement. Most of the evening is spent in playing with ideas on how to do the internal layout of the rebuilt mansion.
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Saturday
Eve and Pat are up early, eat breakfast, and check on the Mansion. The last of the fire brigade left during the night when they decided the ruins were no longer have the risk of the fire restarting. Mother and son check the mini-excavator and they read the manual with it. Pat is licensed to use it and he has used one before in casual employment. But the one he used was much smaller and it had slightly different controls.
Ten minutes later Pat is driving it off the trailer after he set the legs to keep the trailer level. The earth moving blade is attached, but he wants the arms to use the chains. So he drops the blade on the driveway beside the trailer and disconnects it. In just a few more minutes he has the arms on and is heading to the burnt-out mansion building.
After giving the pile of rubble and ashes a hard look they agree on what to do before they put on the proper safety gear, most of which was bought yesterday after Pat was told he'll need it and when to use it. For the next hour they work hard identifying the ends of major support beams near the back of the house and attaching the chains so they can drag them out after they hook the chains to the excavator. Only Pat walks out onto the pile due to concerns the floor to the basement may give way. So he walks out to the pile while taking great care where he walks as he places chains on several beams. Then he returns to the excavator to bring it close to this end of the chains where Eve puts them on the hooks set on the end of the arms. Once they're hooked up she gives Pat directions on dragging the beams out and over to where they're placing them on a cement area by the garage because they'll be there for a long time.
Both Eve and Pat are into giving their equipment names so they're easier to refer to and are like a member of the family. When they start to work the talk is about a name for the excavator. They finally agree on Kelpie as a name for it because it's not big enough to be a work horse and it isn't a Dingo brand unit, but it's a very versatile worker like a Kelpie dog is. Soon after they reach an agreement on the name Pat is attaching chains again, so Eve goes to get paint and a brush. When Pat returns to the excavator the paint is already drying where Eve used a nice script to put the name on the back and side panels of both the mini-excavator and the trailer it travels in. Pat just grins at it being done already.
About 8:30 a.m. the Air Safety Investigation Team arrives on site with several vehicles then they're made very unhappy when Pat won't let them drive the heavier vehicles onto his backyard until after they sign an agreement to pay for landscaping repairs the vehicles will cause. The Team spends a long time examining the wreck and taking photos from a few metres away before they move in to take many close up photos while collecting bits and pieces. A few also spread out over the yard to collect parts that went a fair distance from the impact site. Although the broken glass was replaced yesterday Eve has to take a couple inside to show them where a few bits ended up in The Cottage and the garage as they'd left them there. There's not much because most of the glass was broken by the crash impact shock wave instead the flying bits of plane.
Pat and Eve work very hard for nearly four hours before they drag the last of the visible beams out of the pile at 10:40 a.m. While they have a break and are discussing what to do next some of the Investigation Team members walk over to talk to them about the crash.
While the bulk speak to Eve about what she saw the leader says to Pat, “I know this is private property and your home, but how long can we take to collect the evidence? The slower we go the better things are for us, usually, but it takes a lot longer to get the work done.”
Pat takes a bite of his sandwich before replying, “In general, you can take as many months as you want. My only concerns are how much you'll damage the yard with your trucks, not blocking the drive, and not interfering with us too much. I know you need to be very thorough and it's not part of the yard we use at the moment. But I want to limit damage to the grass and I'll be using some of the space to work on the house as well. I figure, when we get to it, we'll find parts of the plane in the house rubble too because it's what set the house on fire.”
“Since there's no fire trail between the two and we can see a lot of the wings but not the wing-tip fuel tanks we figure the tanks broke off on impact then went into the house before breaking up and starting the fire in there after hitting something. When you start to find metal bits we'd like to have a look at them as well.” Pat nods yes. “So, if we take care about how we do this you don't mind us taking a few weeks to get it all collected and out of here?” Pat shakes his head no, “Thanks.”
Pat and Eve are just putting their protective gear back on when the leader walks up to them again and asks, “Can we hire the excavator to do some of the work for us? It'll save us time and we won't have to ship one in from Sydney or Canberra.”
“Do you need an operator?”
“No, we've an experienced man who knows what we want, so we just need the machine.”
“There will be days I'll need to use it, but I won't need it for the next few days. So I'm sure we can work something out between us.”
“Good, I'll have our guy come and talk to you. He'll bring a casual hire contract over. We cover our own insurance so you don't need to put that in it, but you'll need to provide the fuel. OK?”
Pat nods his agreement, then he thinks on this for a moment. When the man walks away Pat makes a call while walking to the trailer. When it's answered he says, “Serge, someone wants to hire the excavator on a daily casual rate. I provide the fuel and they provide the operator and insurance. What do I charge them?”
Serge laughs, “And you were worried about paying so much!”
“Hey, it's the government team working on the crash. They saw me using it and they figure it'll be easier for them to hire than ship one in.”
“Charge them a hundred a day as they won't argue about that.”
“Thanks, mate.”
Pat is busy unlocking and opening up the many panels on the trailer when a man walks over with a clipboard and a contract. It's filled in with most of the information and now it only requires Pat's details with the excavator's serial number. They're paying one hundred and fifty dollars a day so Pat gives them the details they want and signs it. Then he shows the man all of the tools and has him help him to bring over some of the other stuff he bought yesterday.
The man is very happy when he says, “I'm Bob, I'll be the operator. I'm glad to see you've such a wide range of tools to use because it'll make the job a lot easier. We'll probably not need to use it today or tomorrow, but I expect we'll need three or four days solid next week and each week after that. Is that OK with you?”
“Hi, Bob. I'm, Pat. For the next few weeks I'll be happy to work in with you, especially if you aren't using it on weekends. I bought the unit because I've got a lot of work to do and I know I can't plan to just do all of the excavator work at once. If we plan on you guys having it during the week and I've got it for the weekends we should be OK. And I can be flexible about switching around days as well.”
“Good. That'll make things a lot easier for me.”
“Oh, the operator's and owner's manuals are in the pocket by the driver's seat, so you can check up on anything that looks a bit different.”
Bob laughs, “What! Construction gear with the manuals actually in it! What is the world coming to!” Pat laughs at his comment.
Pat hands over the spare set of keys and Bob goes to familiarise himself with the unit while Pat goes to a side door of the stables. While he walks he glances at the wood shutters over the windows of the storage area. Slowly shaking his head he calls one of the Investigation Team over as he points to a few bits of metal stuck in one of the shutters. She soon has a couple of people examining the whole side of the building, and they find a few bits of the aircraft. They're quick and thorough while using some special detectors to help them, so they're finishing up at the same time Pat is pulling the empty fuel tanker toward the SUV.
This portable fuel tank was acquired by a family member about the same time as he left the Army at the end of the Second World War. It's still in the same Army dull olive green colour, but the identity numbers have been painted over. It's the smallest trailer on the property, but the drum like tank holds almost five hundred litres of fuel and a stamp on it has the capacity as one hundred imperial gallons. It's not registered, but Pat hooks it up to the SUV and he drives to the nearby fuel depot.
Twenty minutes later Pat is parking the fuel tanker on another part of the cemented area by the garage then he chains it to the garage. It'll sit there safe and sound while the locks on it will stop people stealing the fuel in it. This'll make filling the excavator a lot easier because it comes with a hand pump, hose, and nozzle. All of the items have been repaired or replaced at different times since it was acquired.
Pat glances over to where his mother is working on the edge of the pile of rubble by using a shovel to scoop the ashes into one of the six large wheelbarrows they have here. She already has two full. Oh well, back to work. He heads to the back of the garage / stables again. He soon has the yard trolley loaded with the dirt screen frame and filters.
When he pushes the yard trolley over to where he wants to set it up by one of the gardens he once more tries to work out exactly what the base material was originally made for. The four old spoked motorcycle wheels it uses are easy to identify, so are the high-rise push-bike handle bars to push it, but what the base unit is from still has him beat. It's like a metal bath one and half metres long, a metre wide, about half a metre deep, and it's made from thick copper sitting in a solid wood frame. It's not too heavy and it can carry a lot, either in it or on it.
While he's setting up the frame for the screens an older member of the Investigation Team walks over to look at the trolley. She laughs and says, “That's a good use for one of them. I almost didn't believe it when I saw you push it out. I've not seen one for thirty years or more because most of them got melted down during the copper boom.”
Pat turns to her, “You know what this was originally used for?” She nods yes, “Please tell me, because I've always wanted to know. I've only ever seen it like this.”
The woman laughs. “This is a very early style of wash tub.” Pat goes to speak. “It's not the normal type you often see in the period films. This sat on a stand and you lit a fire underneath it. The copper distributed the heat and you left clothes to boil in the hot water to loosen dirt and oil then you returned as it cooled to clean them on the scrubbing board you rested on that flat section on the side. So it's an early hot water wash tub. Most of them were smaller sizes.”
Now that he knows what it was originally made for Pat can see the details and work out how it would have been useful in the big house back in the 1800s. He turns to her, “Thanks for that. This must have been part of the original laundry that got replaced in the fifties. As you can see, someone chose to repurpose for other uses it since then.”
The woman goes back to the plane and Pat finishes putting together the two metre by two metre five screen filter system. He has no idea why it got made in the first place, just that it's there and it will be useful to sort the ashes. There's a heck of a lot of gear in the back storeroom that's like this stuff. Someone had a need at one time so they made a device to do the job. Afterwards it's put in the storeroom until needed again. One contraption has a machine parts stamp from 1825 on it.
With the screen put together he can now mark out how large a hole he wishes to dig in the garden. The idea is to filter the solid parts out while the ash falls into a hole in the garden and be buried there later. By the time he's got a hole that's one and a half metres in each direction and he's ready to put the screen over it Eve has all six of the wheelbarrows full of ashes to be filtered. Yet it looks like she's hardly touched the pile.
Pat goes over and they wheel two barrows of ashes back. They move the screens over the hole and move the ashes from the wheelbarrows to the screen system by using large hand scoops normally used for grain in the old days. All of the fine wood ash, over ninety-nine percent of the material, goes straight through and into the hole in the garden.
They spend the afternoon moving and filtering wood ash. Doing this first part would be quicker using the excavator, but Pat is not prepared to use it inside the building until after he finds the ground floor under the ashes and he can examine it to see if it'll hold the weight. So it's all hand labour at the moment.
They break for dinner at the same time as the Investigation Team leaves for their dinner. After dinner is more research and planning by Pat.
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Sunday
After breakfast it's back to filtering ashes. Pat speeds this up a little by putting the scoop on Kelpie to pour the contents of two wheelbarrows into it. Once loaded he raises the scoop to hold it just over the screens and they use the hand scoops to push the ash out and into the filter to make it a lot faster and easier to do the filtering of the ashes.
Mid-morning Serge arrives in a ute, and grins when he sees what the two are doing. He walks over and says, “No wonder you don't answer the phone.” This makes Eve look at the cordless phone handset for the house phone she has in her pocket - it's showing no charge. She swears while she takes it inside as the two men laugh. He adds, “I've got a tool in the back of the ute that should help you, Pat. You can borrow it.”
They go to look at a large pile of chain in the ute. Pat asks, “What the heck is that?”
“Do you know how fishing trawlers work?” Pat nods yes. “This chain is set up like their nets, but you lay it out on the other side of the rubble, hook pulling chains to the ends, then use the excavator to drag the lot toward you by backing up. It should make getting that pile out into the yard a lot easier, then you can use the scoop like normal. We've not used the chain for years and I all but forgot about it. The newer big excavators are better for what we used to use this for.”
“Thanks, Serge, please help me get it over to the site.” There's a lot of heavy chain so it takes them quite a bit of effort to get it over to where it's needed and laid out to look at it. By the time they've got it set out on the far side of the rubble pile with the chains set to hook up Eve has all of the ashes out of the scoop on Kelpie.
After taking a few minutes to switch back to the arms they try it out. With a little work a large section of rubble is dragged across the remains of the ground floor and out what used to be a set of wide French doors. Most of the fine ash was left behind, but the chains slid through it so they know it's only ashes or very small stuff. The three of them spend the rest of the day using the chains to drag the rubble itself out. Often stopping to drag a large beam to the side and out through the other empty doorway.
Pat provides lunch for Serge when he and Eve stop for their own, and they have all of the large rubble out of the house by the end of the day. There's still a huge pile of ash spread over the floor, but that'll be a lot easier to do by hand than when mixed in with the larger rubble. Once they finish cleaning up the chains they load them back into the tray of Serge's ute since that job is now all done.
Before finishing for the day Pat walks around inside the Mansion to jump up and down as a test of the floor strength. It's weakened a lot and he doubts it'll take Kelpie's weight, but it's safe to walk and stand on to shovel up the rest of the ashes.
While they have dinner the three talk about the work Pat has to do on the Mansion, and Pat asks Serge about a quote for some of the work he's not happy to do himself because he wants an expert to do it properly.
Serge leaves soon after dinner, very happy to have assisted a friend and to also get some more work for his employees. Pat watches him leave before he gets to work on some of his uni assignments.
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Monday to Friday
Monday morning Pat has a few classes to go to. His uni work load isn't high because he's carrying a light load due to doing a lot more classes in his first two and half years so he could take it easy in the rest of it. That decision is now paying off in a lot of good ways because he only has four sets of classes a week, and all of them are in the morning.
Eve spends the morning using the wheelbarrows to move and sift the ashes from inside the Mansion. They're going to leave the rubble to sift when they've Kelpie handy because it's so much easier for that stuff. She glances over at the Investigation Team from time to time but she has no idea of what they're doing, apart from seeing them taking bits of the plane out of the ground in some organised manner.
When his last class for the day is over Pat heads home to hand sort a lot of the larger items out of the piles of rubble. Many are smaller beams or parts of beams. The two fuel tanks are found as large parts of jagged metal so he gets the Investigation Team to examine and take them.
For a change of pace Pat helps his mother with the ashes from time to time, and that's how things go for most of the week. After dinner each day Pat does his uni assignments work plus some checks on the Internet for ideas and help with the rebuilding.
By the end of the week the rubble piles are made into one pile after the large items are sorted by hand and moved into storage or disposal piles. The ashes are off the floor and it's been swept. The Investigation Team removed most of the plane visible above the ground, but they've a lot of it still to go. The big plastic bins for the non-ash items slowly fill as things are found and sorted into them - metal, glass, and plastic items are put into different bins. Only one issue arises during the week - a meeting on the new estate plans they have at Will's office on Thursday.
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Note: The Investigation Team removes what's left of the dead flight crew when they find them, but they don't tell Eve or Pat about it.
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Change of Plans
Pat arrives at the solicitors to discuss the Development Application with Will, and he's surprised to find Serge with his sister, Nadia, there as well. Serge opens the discussion with, “I'm sorry, Pat, but when I spoke to Matthew he said he has some cash flow concerns and he doesn't want to pay for the land in one lump sum. He's suggests a joint venture where you ante up the land while we ante up the materials and work then we split the money when it comes in. However, the revised rates will be an issue until the houses are sold.”
Pat sits and thinks for a few minutes. They've all had a few minutes to think about this, but Pat hasn't. Finally, he leans forward and asks, “Got a draft copy of the plan I can draw all over?” Nadia pulls out a copy and hands it over. He looks at it and asks, “Got one that shows the whole of the block as well?” She hands him a larger plan. “OK. How much would a block be worth if the services and kerbs were in?”
Will goes to speak but Pat waves him to silence. Serge frowns and says, “About a hundred and fifty to two hundred grand. Why, Pat?”
“I've been thinking about this and a few other things since I got the survey report and walked the property.” He turns to Will, “I think we can do this if Matthew and the Council will agree to a couple of things. First, the Council. They normally pay for the land for parks, don't they?” The other three all nod yes. “Good. If the park is twenty-five metres wide that will make it worth about six to seven hundred thousand dollars. Will, ask the Council if they'll pay us that amount for it, but as a credit against our rates. No actual cash. They just deduct our rates from the credit. Think they'll go for it.” They all nod yes as they know the Council wants more parks in the residential areas but it hasn't the cash to buy the land. “Serge, I think we have to do this differently. Will you do the services and kerbs then bill us for them by writing off the blocks of land against those costs when you take them to build houses on?”
“I think I can get Matthew to agree to that. When I did detailed costs I figured it'll cost close to two million for the development work, plus my initial estimate of the land was a fair bit under as well. So if we do the services and start the first block of houses we're about even.”
“Naturally, you'll incur some costs from the start, but not huge ones because we can defer the pro-rata rates charges until either the Council credit is exhausted or you sell the houses.” Pat turns to Will, “I know this will defer the cash inwards for some time, but it will also cover a lot of the expenditure too.” He draws on the plans, “New rules. The road here is to go straight through the entire block. That makes twenty-six house blocks along one side. The park is one seventy-five metres by twenty-five metres. The two cross streets are to be only ten metres like the other streets. The two blocks in the centre will have houses as planned and the first eight on the other side will be as per the plan. That's sixty-three house blocks for sale. On the other side of the new road section will be town-houses; twenty metres wide and thirty-five metres deep gives twenty-one two bedroom units. The twenty-five metre deep strip across the back of the Manor will be four larger house blocks. I want the houses and the town-houses for the Trust to rent out as an income source. We'll pay you for building them by house block credits.”
Serge grins, “Good plan. You don't get any cash or spend any at the start, but you get a lot of cash at the end. The sixty-three house blocks give you just over twelve million and your other costs will be around six million so you'll end up with about six million bucks in the end, but get the houses available for rent before then. I need to do full costs and talk to Matthew, but I think it's all doable. If Matt agrees we'll get a detailed contract with Rivers Regional Construction written up and I'll bring it over to Will for signature in the next few days.” He picks up the plans and notes then he leaves the room, closely followed by Nadia.