Waiting for the heritage mason and a structural engineer

After the initial shock of discovering the bulge in my kitchen wall we panicked for a few hours then realised that it may not be as bad as it first appeared. There was little if any rubble or old plaster behind the wall of cupboards. Just lots of dust and a rat skeleton. The cupboards appeared to have been built to skirt around the bulge almost as if it had been there back in the 60s when the kitchen was last renovated. Had the previous owner just hidden the wall behind a fortress of built-ins? At least the wall didn't appear to be in any imminent danger of collapse. We called the city council's heritage architect and he promptly came out to cast his beady eye over our old walls.

Next step was to contact the heritage brick mason who is based in Brisbane but works statewide and arrange for him to inspect the wall. He's coming early this week. Considering his family company is the only one in the state who is able to fix this wall correctly (historical blah blah blah, heritage whatsa-doovey etc) I'm surprised he can come so quickly. We'll be getting a structural engineer's report too but wanted to see what the mason said first. We think it might be better just to fix the wall in the beginning instead of patching and waiting to see what happens over time. All work on the kitchen has ground to a halt while the "battle of the bulge" goes on. Thankfully we hadn't disconnected the water or removed the sink yet and the stove is still working. Bench space is limited and storage almost nonexistent so we are living out of plastic tubs for food, plates and utensils.

Enough of these boring background details. Next post I'll show you what I have/had in mind for the kitchen fitout. This is in a state of flux though as our budget may be about to get a big hit from the wall repair costs. We have a contingency fund but who knows if it is enough? Perhaps I won't be getting a new stove or those fabulous marble counters after all.