It's really happening

One thing that's shocked me this week is the realization that we are actually doing this renovation. It's all good to plan it but it's quite confronting and even a little bit scary when it actually happens for real. Knocking down our house means there's no turning back and whilst I know I should be excited, I guess it's just a bit scary to think "are we doing the right thing?" "Can we afford this", "was this the right decision?" .. Because let's face it, there is certainly no turning back now! 

Half our house has been demolished! Here's a few little pics of the progress this week. 

It's all in the plan

If you are as much of a fan as I am of reality TV shows like house rules & the block, you would know that the key elements of success are: planning & design. I am beginning to know how the contestants felt at the beginning of each new challenge having to plan every single detail from positions of power points to the layout & style of furniture. 

I guess it wasn't so difficult for us in our last home as the layout was pretty simple.. There was only one wall for the TV to go on, so that's where the TV went. But what do you do when you have multiple walls to choose from, and expensive custom built furniture that is no longer custom built for your new home? How do you decide what type of dining room table and chairs you want and whether it will look best this way or that way.. When all I have to work with is a concrete slab! 

The debate will be whether we get it right or have a massive design fail. Hang on, I mean it's not like we have two famously experienced judges coming around to critique us but, doesn't everyone want one of those houses that looks like it's straight out of a mag? Home Beautiful me up, I'm a fan of that mag too and the app is really good if you haven't downloaded it yet, do it. 

So anyway we did have a win by mapping out our kitchen last night with a bunch of chalk; and managed to work it out so that we utilize 80% of the cabinets that we already have. It seems a waste to just buy a new one when the one we have is only 18 months old, and I love it! There's nothing better than a good deep kitchen drawer! Anyway, let's see what the cabinet maker thinks of our ideas before we get too excited. 

Time to get the creative cap on for the rest of this house! 

Demolition Week

So it's school holidays time and what better way for my hubby to spend it than by starting our demo. We got a list from our builder of what to do and where to start, and my husband has been "GO" ever since! He has ripped up the floors, knocked out the laundry & bedroom walls and even taken down the 60sqm pergola! 

A big thanks to my brother and step dad for coming and helping with all the manual labour, I wouldn't have been any use with my bad back and so we couldn't have done it without them. 

Also if you are doing a renovation yourself I highly recommend doing the demo yourself. Not only can you save in labour costs but you can make some money back by selling off whatever you remove (if you do it properly). We have sold our gas heater, old cupboards, floor coverings, windows, doors and we even have some beautiful cornices and skirtings that can be recycled. Any money you can get in your pocket is better than it going in the skip! We used gumtree to list our stuff and so far we've sold 90% of it. 

My handy hubby also put up a barricade and a door to block off the work zone from the functional space in the house. He may not have a trade but he most definitely is a tradie at heart! 

Here's some pics of all his hard work: 

Blocked off from the hallway but still gives us access when we need it. 

Interior walls stripped back to frames. Ceiling to come down next. 

Back of the house after the pergola came down. You can see the frames through the windows where the renovation will happen. 

Recap on Stage 1

Well our Rumpus room and new laundry are complete! What a transformation! Thanks to Residence Building Group. 

Exterior of Rumpus room before the renovation

Interior of rumpus room before the renovation 

During the renovation, stripped back to bare bones

External of completed rumpus room

Completed external

Completed internal

Completed internal

Stage 2

So it's been a while since I last checked in and things have been moving along nicely in the world. Our home has had the pleasure of many tradies, with lots more to come in upcoming weeks with the commencement of Stage 2 of our transformation. It's had it's ups and downs but we are finally on the move to start getting stuck in with the sledge hammer in the old laundry and spare bedroom. There's not too much demo work we can do here since it's pretty much a shell anyway but we are still looking forward to it! We are trying to achieve a relocation of our kitchen and create an open plan lounge & dining area.  Here's the space we are ready to demo which will have a new roof and transform into the open plan lounge room. 

Goodbye pink loo! I will not miss you. 

This is the laundry that has already been replaced in our new rumpus room. 

Small changes

It seems like we have been working so hard and keeping ourselves busy with a list full of things to do to our home, yet only small changes are noticeable. Time has flown by and the most recent stint on school holidays has come and gone. My hubby and I have been busy in the gardens, both front and back, stripping them both down to nothing. The front has been replanted but will take a few years to properly establish... Like they say everything takes time and I am one impatient lady! Ha. Never the less we have made it through most of the hard work and we are almost ready to sit back and watch it all grow. Here are some latest snaps of the happenings at Miller Street! 

Big thanks to my brother for doing this great paving job for us out the front. Of course it wouldn't have happened without the relentless hard work and help from my hubby either so big kisses to him too. #ryanrebbeckpavingandfencing. 

Looking forward to finishing things off before we get started on the internal works. Excited it's all coming together! 

Settled in!

Well it's been a few weeks now since we have been in the new place. We have painted and painted, cleaned and cleaned, and tried very hard to make this house our home. Finally after many long nights and weekends we have done it. The house is looking good and starting to feel like we belong.

So stage 1 of our interior re-design is now complete and we are just waiting on the plans for stage 2 from our builder and architect. Once again, here are a few pics to show you how far we have come.

This is our entrance way coming in from front verandah. We threw out the old fabric chandelier, took down all the picture hooks and coat racks and added fresh paint & a new light fitting.. thanks Bunnings!

Before we moved in this hallway was 'clutter city'. It had furniture everywhere, an old run down linen press on the right and was just really shabby looking. It has some good features though like the width.. my friends say they are hallways for ladies with prams! This one connects the original house to the extension and through the arch is the open lounge room and access to the yard and rumpus room. Our bedroom is on the left and bathroom is on the right. The archway will be knocked out in 'phase 2' and the glass doors and windows will be moved further to the right to allow for the kitchen to be moved down here. I am not a real fan of being able to see straight through to the back yard from the front door which is the current situation. If you look closely enough you would be able to see our 'weed city' out there which is not so much of a nice view; and plus its bad feng-shui. It's the old saying "money comes in, money goes out"; but this will all be fixed with the re-modelling design. It works for now.

the 'backroom'. If you have seen the previous pictures of this room you would remember it used to have brownish cornices and cream walls. Our furniture is nice and 'cosy' back here... it only just fits in! Dining table on the right overlooks the back yard for now, it's not until we finish the shuffling of rooms and knocking down of some walls until we will have a proper open space for this. Our beautiful kitchen is being picked up and moved out here and we are closing off the sliding door to the carport. I took this photo standing in a spare bedroom which will also be opened up by knocking down the dividing wall and then this entire space will be big enough for kitchen and open plan lounge and dining. We don't want to do too much out here just now because it will all be knocked out soon... bring it on the demolition!