Can of worms

Noone wants to hear their builder utter the phrase "can of worms" in relation to their renovation. Especially not at 8:30 in the morning with a three year old dolled up in her tutu (since 6am) in eager anticipation of seeing Angelina Ballerina at the Opera House and completely unable to comprehend how a trip to the new house to talk to the builder will fit into the morning schedule. By 'completely unable to comprehend' I mean 'sent into total meltdown mode at the very thought'.

So when we finally turned up at the house I was apprehensive to say the least. Our builder revealed the problem - a hole in the floor. Hmm. There was more. The hole essentially extended underneath the entire slab in the downstairs living area. Sigh.

Don't get me wrong, it's ultimately a good thing they found it under the layers of tiles they were lifting up, but a new slab won't be cheap and will delay things. Given we're being kicked out of our rental in a frighteningly short amount of time, delays are less welcome than ever.

On the upside, it's going to be cheaper to polish the new slab as the downstairs floor than it will be to have wooden floors, so I'm definitely going to get my polished concrete floors downstairs!

We do have our footings finished now so at least we're still moving forward. Let's hope that the house has no more floating slab-like surprises for us. I'm all for quirky and imperfect, but dangerous and expensive quirks aren't the type I like.

Work plods on

I said last week that after all the demolition the work our builders have been doing this week would be slightly less visually impressive and I was right. These rather unimposing trenches are the result of more blood, sweat and tears (well, probably not tears) than the rest of the demolition combined, but look a tad like the kind of trenches little boys dig in the backyard in an afternoon playing war games.

I'm reliably informed though that jackhammering through slab after slab after slab was enough to send the team ever so slightly bonkers. Especially in the rain. Still, it's done and nearly ready for the footings.

The ensuite doorway was about the last bit of demolition left to be done after my last post and here it is - the view from our bedroom into the ensuite and main bathroom beyond.

The other thing that has been done this week is the electrics. Again, it doesn't look like much but the whole house is wired up now. And I am in a lather of panic that I chose the right spots for switches.

One thing that has impressed me enormously is how neat the building team is. Even when I sneak over for a peek as opposed to a scheduled visit their equipment is always very neatly stored. I'm considering asking if anyone of them want a job tidying a mad house when they're finished the build.

This is just a gratuitous shot of the exterior. We're not touching anything outside - with the exception of replacing that dodgy metal lacework and bamboo screen upstairs. The outside is very definitely phase two.

Demolition, demolition, demolition

Hmm. There was a wall here last week. And that metal grid was a bridge to the upstairs terrace. After last week I have to confess I didn't think there was really too much more demolition to be done. I was wrong!

This existing downstairs hallway wall has gone - completely opening up the space that will be the two bathrooms. It was always a hard space to picture as it was split by the wall and an old toilet room but now it's much easier to imagine two bathrooms fitting in here. On the far right hand wall you can see where the ensuite doorway will be knocked through to the bedroom.

I *think* that once this wall and the ensuite doorway wall have been knocked through there are no more walls to come down. This will be the new hallway entrance from the downstairs living area.

This shot gives a little bit of an idea about the 'wall of glass' effect we're hoping will allow light to flood into our downstairs spaces. Upstairs will be louvres and downstairs will be bifold doors onto the courtyard.

This looks back from the terrace, through the kitchen and into the open plan dining and lounge room. Yikes we're missing a lot of walls!!

Walls? What walls?

Finally. We've started. That's right - started. We have development approval, a construction certificate and all manner of random permits from the Council. What we no longer have is internal walls. We're also missing the odd external one too. In fact, our kitchen only has two walls at the moment.

This is looking out from the living room to the roof terrace. To the left is a non-existent kitchen wall. When it's finished, that should be a wall of louvres. Where I am standing will be a floor to ceiling window.

This is looking back to the kitchen from the terrace. You can see the lack of walls! The wall immediately in front of me will be bi-fold doors. The entrance to the kitchen from the living area will be where the old shower recess.

Another gratuitous kitchen shot. I'm quite taken with the lack of walls at the moment. It gives the illusion of significant progress.

This is looking back through the kitchen to the terrace. Instead of the dodgy hedging around the edge we'll have some nice timber privacy screens.

Moving downstairs, we're missing the wall that was in the entrance. It's completely opened up what will be the downstairs living area and even without all the louvres in it is much lighter.

A different view of the downstairs living space. The solid wall will become the hallway through to the bathrooms and main bedroom and the french doors will become louvres onto the internal courtyard.

This is the main bedroom - or dead plant dumping ground as the case may be.

It's boring stuff like footings next, so I'm really pleased we have some missing walls to focus on for the next little while. After so long with nothing happening I'm a little eager for visible progress. Poor builder.

Welcome to the neighbourhood

On a recent visit to the house we found this beautifully written note in the letterbox. I must admit I was a little nervous when it first tumbled out of a huge pile of catalogues - especially as it arrived just after our DA was lodged and the notification went up on the house. Turns out though it was simply a welcome to the neighbourhood and some suggestions for our renovation.

Obviously from a long-time local, they pointed out some local landmarks that were a similar style to our house and that had colour schemes that might complement the outside of our place. They even pointed out another old shop not far from ours that had clever incorporated a third level behind the parapet on the roof.

It was a lovely surprise and a lovely welcome to the neighbourhood. I really hope we bump into the author at some stage so we can thank them for their thoughtfulness.

Cool discovery

One of the best bits about this old house so far has been peeling back the layers and finding out what's underneath. It helps us piece together a bit of its history - or at least some snippets from which we can imagine a history.

Like most renovations of buildings this age, we've found faded wallpaper and peeling paint, but the coolest thing we've found is this note on the plaster underneath the wall that was hiding the fireplace.

It's a note from an apprentice carpenter spruiking for future work. He writes:

"I'm an apprentice carpenter and in ten years time ring me up and I'll build your house"

It's dated April 1988 - so twenty three years ago (interestingly, almost to the date of when we signed the contract). I've done some research and - if I have the right Malcolm Monk - it seems that his enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit didn't leave him and he became quite a large property developer. Unfortunately, it seems the GFC wasn't too kind to his business and he's shut up shop.

But still - what an esoteric and charming find. I hope there are more as our journey progresses.

Kitchen - use your imagination

This is the outside of our kitchen. Well, it's the outside of the bedroom that is going to become our kitchen. Picture, if you will, folding doors leading out onto the terrace and a wall of louvers that will send light flooding into the kitchen and the internal courtyard downstairs. Struggling? Never mind. I understand.

See that hole in the wall (no, not one of mine)? Behind there is the kitchen. That's not where the entry will be (it will be slightly off to Puddleduck's right) but our builder had to knock through there to get rid of an ugly feature wall. I do like being able to peek through from the living area though - it gives me a little bit of an idea of how it will flow when it's all finished.

This is where the room currently opens to the terrace and where the bifold doors will go. I'm already picturing summer barbecues on the terrace...