House Renovation: Week One

I'm at a point where I don't even know where to start and what to tell you first. So much has happened this last week and I've missed keeping you updated. Each time I sit down to write I either remember something else I need to do or I'm just so exhausted that the couch or bed seems a better option. This morning though, my kids are at my sister's for a couple of hours, I have dinner in the oven cooking to drop over to a sick friend and I so am making time for an update here.

Firstly...I am unbelievably happy about the progress with our house renovations and how the house is unfolding.  Our builder Sam and his assistant, Murray, started on Monday and have spent the week demolishing the back rooms of the house. They built a ply wall between where we are living during the renovations and the building site. Not a fleck of dust is coming through the wall. We are barely affected by the building site at all...not like last time when we renovated and had no bathroom or kitchen for months.  Our laundry has been temporarily relocated to one of the sheds in the garden but at least it's fully functioning. We don't have a dining table in our current set up but we'll cope eating off the coffee table and kitchen bench for the duration.

This living space is usually our dining room off the kitchen but we decided it's better to have a good lounge room than a dining table for the 7-8 months of the renovation so we've set it up like this. It's lovely and coy. Phil has set my computer up on the console table in the corner and it's where I'm blogging now from and tracking the house costs with all my spreadsheets!

I thought you might like to see some photos of the back of the house when we first moved in. The house was a deceased estate and both owners had died of emphysema and the house had lots of smoke stains including two patches on the ceiling above the bed. Ewww....

Here is the back yard after we'd been here for a few years. We always knew one day we'd do a big renovation and go upstairs so we never spent much money on it in the interim. The hills hoist was pulled down about a year after the photo was taken and all the plants have grown massively.

(we are selling the spa if anyone is interested!)

The garden has grown so much (and so have the kids. That's Jonty in the highchair)

Here's the house this week.

What I think is interesting is that the original house paint colour on these bricks below is almost the exact colour we painted the house. it was pink when we bought it and we painted it Dulux Seed Pearl and when we pulled the fibro add on room off there is the same colour! 

Day 4

The room with the bookcase built in the side is Jonty's old bedroom and that will be our laundry/utility room. Enormous! The little door to the side hidden behind the timber was an old toilet that a few years ago we made into our laundry. This room is getting made smaller as the staircase is going where my desk used to be and the 800mm of the bottom floor behind the stair case will be a ling narrow wine cellar.  You can see in this photo above the ply wood wall that is separating the building site and our living quarters.

Before the building started but after we'd cleared out the rooms I let the kids go made with spray paint. They loved it!

When we pulled down the study ceiling we found a beautiful old horsehair plaster ceiling underneath. So sad to think this had been covered up while we were here. It's not able to be saved . I'm not sure if you can make out the detail but it was so ornate and lovely.

When the asbestos was being removed we cleared out and Jonty had a playdate so Sasha and I had some well earned pampering. She's been on the crowbar while I've been lifting the very heavy pavers. She is such a hard worker and a joy to be with.

I'll keep you updated with the renovation progress if you are interested.

Fiona xx