Renovation Update

So many people have been keen to know the progress on the extension of our house. You can read snippets here, but thus far we have been pretty tight lipped. Something about making sure that the internet doesn't know we are doing it so that we have less of a chance of getting robbed in the process.

Anyway, we are nearing the end, so I've started trawling through photos that we took (systematically documenting every change seemed like a good idea at the time...) to find the best way to give people a snapshot of what has happened.

So here we go! Starting with a lovely big shot of our enormous back yard and what the house originally looked like. The bit on the right hand side where the roof slopes down was our existing laundry and second toilet, which were on a lower level that then house itself. That was demolished on day one and everything was built out on the same level as the house from there.

The children were easily entertained by the digger and construction that they could see from the back bedroom window. In the above photo, they are in the room on the far left of the house (the set of three windows). These windows got moved early on to the other side of the house because otherwise they would be looking straight out onto our new deck.

And at the end of week one, or maybe two, here is where we are! The back cladding is gone, the stumps are in, the foundations are laid. We can no longer use our back door.

The external wall frames did go up after this pretty quickly, and then the back of the house kind of sat there for what felt like a long time, because the roof trusses were getting made and were taking their sweet time doing it. Our builder was great though, and used the spare time to start re cladding the house at the front.

This is what the front of our house looked like:

With the renovation happening mostly at the back, we had relocated the trampoline (which I'm technically not supposed to use with out proper soft fall and spring protection) out to the front yard. The kids have loved it. Anyway, back to renovation talk.

That plain creamy stuff is actually made of asbestos, which is fine except if you break it off and crumble it up, it can kill you, so it's best to get rid of it. While we were getting the extension done it seemed like a good opportunity to do so. An expensive opportunity, but an opportunity none the less.

After the asbestos was gone (hallelujah!) the builders insulated and wrapped our house up in this attractive blue stuff before cladding it with some lovely weatherboard look-a-like cement fiber stuff. The insulation made the world of difference to the overall temperature of the house, which was super exciting because we don't have air conditioning.

And then, the trusses arrived and we retunred to the back of the house again! 

Just before Christmas the roof was on. It was pretty crazy to think from the first of November to mid December that so much had changed. What you see building before your eyes here is a laundry, toilet and second bathroom (essentially running down the right side of the house towards the yard). A living area with a bay window (straight out in the middle there), which has bi-doors out onto a large deck (left hand side of the house (where there is currently no roof)).

In this shot, you can still see the old "back wall" of our house is still existing in there. The builders had been so considerate of us and my work, and built all of this other stuff with the original house still intact. That wall stayed in until mid January, when the extension part of the house was all wrapped up and secure and it finally came time for it to go. 

We are really stoked with how things are going along so far, and excited to share some more of the renovation journey, though I suspect this is enough for one post. I feel it's important to mention though that this snapshot does not show how cramped things can be inside a house under renovation, and how the loss of easy yard access really impacted all of us, the girls and my work especially. I've spent the last three months essentially taking four children on excursions most days of the week. Some days we leave at 7:30 am or 8:00 and don't get home until 4:30 pm. Which is a really long day.

But, on the plus side, knowing that the house was going to get smaller before it got bigger, meant that I packed up a lot of kids toys in preparation. And I culled a lot on the way, not just toys, but other things as well. It's been really good to have a reason to do a thorougher clean out. I even did my material stash! I don't know that I'm up to holding things and seeing if it sparks joy, but I've definitely enjoyed the purge, and the kids have done really well with the lack of toys.

Seriously, I'm talking one tin of cars, a tub of duplo and a drawer of soft toys. Even their books got put away, and we have been reading about an eighth of their usual library. That's been the hardest part.

Anyway, I'll tell you more about the joys and tears of renovation, next time. Stay tuned!