Renovation Update Two

When we left off last time, the outside of the house was built, and things were starting to look very different. At this point, we were pretty excited by what we could see on the inside of the house, so I took a video to help other people visualize what was going on and even see what was happening. 

It is pretty cool to be able to look back at that and compare it to where we started and where we are now, so I'm glad I did take it. The next thing to go in was the windows and doors, and then the floors! 

Here are the girls and I on a lovely new floor! That bay window area that we are standing in will eventually have a seat in it. You can see the inside of the house walls are not yet covered, and the ceiling isn't in yet either.

We  had to move out for the next bit, because we were at the point where the old back wall of our house had to come out. For that to happen, the kitchen had to be taken apart too, because, as you saw in the video, the kitchen wall was moving out so that we could fit a dishwasher in. Here is a photo of Steve with his dishwasher.

He was very excited about this, and still is.

A week or two later, and this was our house! The lovely new floor was covered up with cardboard to protect it while the tradies did their work, putting pipes and cables in all over the place. You can see on the floor next to Sophie in the picture below where our old kitchen used to be in that un-polished area of floor (that was were the old stove stood when we initially bought the house and had the floors done. When we had the new kitchen put in, the cupboards went straight over it).

Everything felt roomy and spacious in the house now, and the outside was finished cladding all the way around, so it was beginning to look pretty spiffy.

We were out of the house for about three weeks, which was pretty tough, even with the sweet accommodation my parents graciously provided for us. That in-between state is hard to live in for an extended period, so I'm glad it was only three weeks.

Our neighbors remarked on the house a lot too, and we had a lot of compliments about the new color, which was literally just the unpainted cladding. I guess we could have saved a bunch of money and not painted it, but it didn't seem worth it.

Here is a final inside shot now that the walls are all covered up and plastered. The cornices were yet to be done and the kitchen cupboards were still all over our front living room, but it was really beginning to feel like it was almost there.

I commented to Steve that the renovation was similar to having a baby who was crying. Bear with me, I'll explain. Sometimes when you put a kid to bed, they have a grumble, and if you go in straight away, it's actually not going to help them sort it out themselves. They need to learn to do it themselves.

So you say to yourself; "I'll just give them two minutes, and then I'll go in." And sometimes that's all it takes, but other times, the two minutes is a little bit perpetual. After the first two minutes, you say "I'll just give it two more minutes", and twenty minutes later when they have finally gone to sleep, you feel fine because you only gave it "two minutes".

Now, to the renovation. As we got closer and closer to the end, if felt like we were saying "just two more weeks", and after those two weeks, we would say, "Oh, yep, just two more weeks." So there are only "two more weeks" to go, but it's been at least six weeks thus far. 

I wonder when it will really be done, and I think it will be actually long after the builders have left, because there are still things to sort out, and put away, and find new homes for, and clean, and clean and clean. So much cleaning. Hopefully we will get there though. Stick around if you are keen to see the final installments of our renovation.