Ardent viewers of the myriad of renovation and building shows that permeate the airwaves will know that once you lift the floor of an old building, troubles lie within.
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When the Ashcroft family purchased the Millthorpe corner store in March the plan was to have the shelves stocked and the doors open in a month or two.
That plan itself has been shelved as manager of the store Adam Ashcroft deals with replacing the entire floor with a concrete floor that in the end will be much better and more utilitarian than the old rotting timbers.
"We knew that there had been a few patchy band aid fixes over the years, but underneath those there were some patches of the original floor where old joists were connected to new joists and some were like violet crumble. They would just disintegrate if you touched them with a hammer," he said.
The decision was made to end the temporary rebuilds and with the need to house numerous displays, refrigeration and shelving, having a blank canvas to work with has its advantages.
"This will absolutely refresh it and will set us up for the long term as well," Mr Ashcroft said. "We're not planning on only being there for a couple of years and flipping it, we're there for the long haul and it's a good opportunity to do it once and do it well."
"We've re-concreted the footings, there will be a full polished concrete floor so we should be good for a few hundred years now."
Working against him though is also the familiar story of a shortage of building materials, tradies that are under the pump and wet weather.
"Every time we go to take a great leap forward we find a few staggering steps along the way," he said.
"It's only a short term problem though because we are here for the long haul and overall the wait will be worth it."
Digging around in the nether reaches of an old building often reveals a few historic artefacts. The corner store once housed a shoe cobblers workshop and once the floor was removed a few old soles were discovered. They have been collected by the Golden Memories Museum Millthorpe and apart from them and a 1977 ten cent piece, the site was bare.
With the past removed, Mr Ashcroft has his heart and mind focussed on developing a store that fits the needs of the community.
"We're being very forward thinking in what we do," he said. "We're putting in all that we need to expand and develop the store as we move forward and that's one of the advantages of what we're doing with the slab. All the pipes and cables can go through them."
Yet another issue for Mr Ashcroft is that of logistics. With no loading dock, storage and a weight limit on Victoria Road, moving stock in and out of the site will require some innovative thinking.
"With our two stores in Orange I can use the Summer Centre as a destination point and once I purchase a truck for myself I'll be able to commute between Millthorpe and the Summer Centre. It has been a little bit of a nightmare, but I think that the residents will understand that we don't have any cool rooms or storage out the back," he said.
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