Change of plans

28-2-13

This afternoon we met with the draftsman (with the three kids in tow. That was fun!! Not) and told him of the plans to go up and change the laundry etc. He told us that we would have to step in the top storey of the house due to regulations abut overshadowing. So he suggested doing a greater canterlevering and turning the overhang into an undercover outdoor area. This will mean that we can fit 2 bedrooms and a living room upstairs but it will encroach more on the kids backyard space. So we will have to rejig the backyard down the track to make the most of the space.

He said the new plans will hopefully be done in 2-3 weeks then we resubmit the amendments to council again. Fingers crossed no one objects.

I can't find any pictures online of what it might look like unfortunately.

Undercoat finished

I just found time to finish the undercoat for the bench. However it is raining today so I hope it stays dry under the porch. I will paint the next coat in a gloss acrylic the same colour as the cream in our house. I think if I did it stark white it wouldn't blend very well.

I saw these outdoor cushions at Ikea which I think I might get for it. However the website says they don't sell them at Richmond Ikea  :(  That is dissappointing. I might have to go check out some places at Highpoint to see if I can find some. Maybe even spotlight.

I am trying to convince my Hubby that we should paint the front door an indian red. I think it would give the place a nice punch of colour. He said though (being a carpenter) that you should never paint a door black or dark red because they absorb too much heat which warps the shape of the door. But ours is south facing so I don't think it would affect it too much.

Display home hunting

Today we went for a look at some display homes. We wanted to get an idea for the stairs and bathroom and laundry. Didn't see too much that appealled to us, but I did get to show Hubby how I wanted the stairs to curve around at the bottom. Forgot to take a picture of that though.

There was some gorgeous decor though. Some brilliant wallpapers, especially in the girls bedrooms.
I also liked this high window in the shower. I want this in our ensuite.

Love this wall panelling. Not sure where to put it though.

Also this wallpaper behind the lounge is to look like wooden boards. How cool does it look.

So even though the display homes aren't really my style (I am sick of the brown/beige kicthens) there are some other cool decorating ideas to see. And the size of the houses is to dream of. But I keep telling myself to think about all the cleaning in a big house. :)  My tiny shoebox is bad enough.



Undercoat underway

So I have found time to do most of the undercoat. It is a an oil based primer. Just need to flip it over and do the underneath.

Reviving a garden bench

Just decided to give our garden bench a new look. Not sure why, and not even sure that it will look better, but maybe it will just look cleaner. It sits on our front porch with a faded old cushion, so I will need to hunt down some pretty new cushions to got on it. Hopefully I can find some going cheap somewhere as we really shouldn't be spending too much in the lead up to the extension.

So here is the before:

Just priming it at the moment, well trying to when te baby has her naps. My 4 year old boy is a very good helper and has been sanding it and painting it will me.

So stay tuned for the next update.  :)

A side project

Our TV cabinet is from Ikea and I do like it, however both the doors have glass panels so you can see the mess inside which I hate. So I thought maybe I'd cover the glass with something pretty. First I tried printing out some chevron pattern on A3 paper at work. It wasn't quite big enough and the colour didn't go well

So I found some pretty wrapping paper yesterday and tried that. I think it looks much nicer.

A possible layout

23-2-2013

So last night Hubby and I got out the tape measure and mapped out some ideas for the upstairs area and walk in robe. I drew up a plan to show the draftsman on Wednesday and I think I may actually be happy with this.

After talking about feng shui, and how having the stairs face the front door is bad, I had the idea of turning the first few step to the left and adding a wall (Or leaving the existing wall) opposite the front door.

Also I think we need to canterlever one of the rooms at the top so that there is a little hallway to get access to the second bedroom up there. This is what I drew up:

On our way at last

22-2-2013

After over 12 months of waiting for council permission, we can finally say that we can start renvoating and extending our tiny Edwardian double fronted house in Melbourne's Western Suburbs. It has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, no dining and a teeny tiny living room.

Here is the original kitchen:

We have lived here since 2004, a few months after we got married. It was never intended to be our forever house. We were going to do a fast reno, sell and upgrade. Somehow, money and time got in the way and it was a much slower process than we had planned.

3 children later and we have run out of space. We feel that the cheaper option is to exetnd rather than move house as the stamp duty would kill us. So 14 months ago we put in some basic plans to the council to extend back and add an extra living, ensuite and bedroom.

We think that adding an extra storey would be a much better idea if this is to be our forever house. I say if, because I would never be so rigid as to not be open to the idea of moving if the need be. So on Wednesday we are meeting with our draftsman to run through the plans for the upper storey extension.

Here are our single storey plans. The wider part at the back is all new extension.

After they are drawn up they have to be re-submitted to council and further advertising done before we can actually get the engineering done. That is when we will see how much it will all cost I guess. My Husband will be doing as much of the work as he can as he is a carpenter and we did pretty much all the other renovation work ourselves.

Along the way I will be posting about my decorating ideas and little side jobs. It is all very exciting and I am constantly thinking about how it will all fit together.

Cheers,
Nat