03 House "Muschamp"

A plaque at the base of the house refers to the builders as father George Barker Muschamp and son Lorenzo di Castillo Muschamp.                Both father and son were (Master) Stonemasons and they built the house in their spare time between 1910 and 1914. 

In honour of the builders I named the project "House Muschamp". 

The house is built at #19 Forth Street, Richmond in Christchurch.
Externally the house measures only (11x11) 121 square meters and the floor to ceiling height is 3.4 meter.
The house is built in solid Oamaru stone both interior and exterior; the parameter wall is a cavity wall.
Gables, lintels, sills, corbels and soffits all are made out of Oamaru stone.  

Next to the House is a Garage and at the back there's an Outbuilding and storage space.   The Outbuilding contains a Toilet and a Laundry block and has a Water tank on the roof, it's connected to the house by a Porch.  Also both additional buildings were also made out of Oamaru stone, however the construction technique used differs from the house.   At the additional buildings concrete was poured against the Oamaru Stone on the inside making it impossible to deconstruct them properly.   Carved artifacts and piles of stones still are scattered throughout the garden.    Obviously this is a house where a stonemason used to live and work.

Heritage:  Just before the earthquakes happened the house was picked up by Heritage Christchurch and it was in the process of being listed. However, the Heritage department got overwhelmed with work in the aftermath of the earthquakes and listing of the house got stalled. I am in contact with Gareth Right (Heritage Christchurch) from the early days of the deconstruction.    We have established a good contact and I feel very much supported by Heritage Christchurch.