Before and almost finished

For everyone who has asked for progress photos from the house up the street.... inside is very nearly finished although not quite.  I took a couple of photos on my phone today but they aren't the best.

The first two are before and after of the kitchen.  Amazing what a good paint job can do!  Even the kitchen cupboards are the same ones.  They did get new door knobs though.  We bought a pair of flat pack drawer units to make up the island and Mick made a benchtop (draped with a drop sheet in the photo!) for it and side panels painted to match the cupboard doors.  We haven't bought the rangehood yet.

The pantry got a window, some flat pack cupboards and Mick's made up benchtop.  Now there's also a space for a fridge or freezer to the right of the new window.

More later.....

Renovating - Progress

I've had a couple of requests for progress information on the renovating.  Mick has basically just concentrated on one half of the house.  He's been using the other half - the kitchen and living room as his workshop.  The one bedroom has been partitioned into two, all the fittings and doors have been removed and everything has been patched and painted and put back together.

The newly divided bedrooms, walk in robe, bathroom, laundry and butler's pantry and all looking great.  They just need floor and window coverings now.

The one enormous bedroom in the house when we bought it

Framework for the new walls

 

Reno - Colour scheme

Neutral.

We've never really been neutral colour scheme people.  Our little house in Melbourne was painted a lovely soft yellow inside.  We loved it. 

The house where we live now is rather more bold on colour.  We chose these colours from a heritage paint chart.  This is our spare room.  The red trim is typical of the era.

So then to "the house up the road".  We know we'll be renting it out.  Plus...  it would be nice to have a neutral background so pretty much any furniture or accessories would go with it.  We've chose a Haymes colour for the walls called Heritage and for the trim Wild Rice.  It will certainly be a change for us!

Reno - Heating and cooling

We've bought a wood heater with a glass door for the living room up the road.  It's the same as the one we have in our lounge room here at home - a Heat Charm.  We've been very happy with the one we have now and it efficiently heats most of the house.  It's only that the back room of the house (kitchen and sitting room) are a few steps lower than the rest so the heat won't travel down the stairs.  We have a wood fired Rayburn in the kitchen so this room is always cosy warm anyway.  The new house is all one level so it won't be an issue.

As we'll be renting the "house up the road" out while we're in England we're going to put in a split system heater/air-conditioner.  They are a popular choice in Australia now.  We're quite happy relying on firewood for our heating (Mick is occasionally asked to cut down a tree for someone and he gets the firewood so we don't always have to buy it) but for a tenant we think it would be better to have electric heating available.  Plus, this option will give us air-conditioning to get through the next Summer or two.

When we return from England, and if we decide to stay in that house, we'll install ducted evaporative cooling like we have now.  We much prefer the evaporative cooling to refrigerated air-conditioning.  It's nicer to be able to have a couple of windows or doors open and have fresh air moving through the house in Summer.  With refrigerated air-conditioning you have to close the house up to keep the cool air in.  The running costs of evaporative cooling are much lower too.  You are basically only paying for the running of a large fan (blowing air over a tray of water).  During a normal hot Summer we can have the evaporative cooling going from first thing in the morning until after we've gone to bed, or even all night in an extreme heatwave. 

There is little difference in our electricity bill between Summer and Winter.  In Winter we occasionally use a portable electric heater as a backup - for example if we've been out and the wood fire has gone out and the house is cold we'll put the electric heater on for an hour while the fire is getting established.  In Summer we often have the evaporative cooling going every single day for weeks at a time.  The cost is minimal.  So we're happy with how things work for us now and will eventually have a similar setup at the new house.

Reno - Flat pack cabinets

At "the house up the road" we have a walk in pantry and a walk in robe - for the first time!  Neither of them had anything worth salvaging inside except a hanging rail in the robe.  At first we talked about Mick making fitted cabinets for the pantry but when we looked at the price of flat pack cabinets we decided that would be the way to go.  We'll do the same in the wardrobe as there is no linen cupboard in the house.

Off we went to Bunnings last week and bought up what seemed like an enormous pile of flat boxes.  It's not a fun job putting that stuff together and I know Mick has very little patience for those things.  I think it will be my job.  Fun!!

Renovating

We don't have time for much else at the moment than work and renovating.  I keep thinking that if we were to sell our house tomorrow, we'd likely have 60 days to get the inside of that house habitable (which it isn't right now) finish packing and storing the things that we won't be taking up there and then packing up the remainder to move.  Rather daunting.  Plus, I'm of to the US the first week of October so that might make the timing a little difficult too.

So with this in mind I won't have time to investigate items on our narrowboat list, instead I'm focusing on the items on our renovating list!  A slight diversion for Narrowboat Dreaming....

Reno - Solar hot water vs. electric

We always intended that our next house would have a solar hot water system.  It's seems crazy not to when the sun shines so much of the time where we live.

Now that we're in the throes of this renovation we've had to slightly re-think that plan.  We know we'll be renting this house out.  We don't have natural gas here so the hot water back up would have been instantaneous gas fueled by a gas bottle.  We've decided we're not comfortable with having a gas bottle in a house that will be tenanted.  Maybe we're worrying about nothing but we both had this same thought separately.  The decision was easy - an off-peak electric hot water service. 

Up the road

We settled on the purchase of the house we bought up the street on Thursday.  A bit of a non-event when you aren't actually moving immediately.  Plus, we already had the house keys so nothing much seemed to happen except the solicitor rang and said all had gone through, and we now have a new loan.

Mick has finally relented to taking Fridays off again.  He did this for several years while we renovated but had slowly slipped back into working the whole week.  Now with a new project he's decided to work a four day week again.  Friday morning saw him up bright and early, rushing through breakfast and off up the street.  I rushed to get dressed so I could take a few photos before he started destroying the place.  Every time I intend to take photos of the houses we've bought before he starts but when he's on a mission there is no stopping him.  Luckily this time he had to pull down a section of the tumble down front fence to allow for a large rubbish skip to be delivered.  It gave me a chance to take a few photos.

By lunchtime one of the chimneys was down, the old slow combustion stove was out and the living room and kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off.  I went back and forth between home and the new house while running errands, ordering things, making phone calls.  Saturday was another busy day - the carpet has all been removed and the wall between living room and kitchen is almost gone.  We had an inspection by prospective buyers at our place so I rushed around tidying and cleaning and took the dogs (we're dog sitting for my brother and his girlfriend) up to the new place.  There was a fair stream of curious neighbours and other town locals wanting to see what we'd bought and what we planned to do with it. 

This list of what is to be done at the house has grown a little.  Mick has decided he wants to fit out the walk in pantry now rather than when we return from England.  We're going to have it like a little butler's pantry with a window, a sink and benchtop with cupboards under.  It will be great to have somewhere to keep electrical kitchen appliances for easy use without them being in view.  We're also going to buy a new hot water service now as the old one is the sort that's in the ceiling and the water pressure is terrible. 

As if he hasn't enough to think about right now, Mick came home late yesterday afternoon saying he's worked out where we can have our walled garden when we come back from England!  Goodness, that's a way off!  We haven't even left yet!!

1. Kitchen and dining with loungeroom to the right.
2. The kitchen.
3. Loungeroom.
4. Pantry.

Pantry