A bit about our house

We bought a 1970's house, that pretty much looked like it had not had any TLC done to it since it was built. Undoubtedly one of the worst houses on the best streets (which is great for renovation and investment purposes).

(View from the back yard when we bought it). On the first day of owning our house we went in and filled up an entire skip bin from our demolitions. We ripped up carpet, lino, smashed out cupboards, got rid of the curtains and blinds, you name it. By the end of the week the house was bare, we were down to the sub-flooring, we had taken off walls that had been dodgyly gyprocked, and ripped out the kitchen. A week after that we moved in, since then we have done a fair bit, but nothing is finished to completion... we are very much living in a half-done-house.

The work we have to do is; paint the entire house, lay flooring through whole house, new kitchen, new bathroom, new toilet, new laundry, new wardrobe in main bedroom. All of the windows have been painted in Mission Brown, which unfortunately is a mission to get off, and we aim to get rid of it! We would like a verandah extending along the length of the back of the house with decking, this will extend our inside living space and add value to the house. We also aim to knock down the single garage that currently exists (and is in terrible condition) and replace it with a 6x9 metre garage, and stud-wall a section at the back to create a games room/study, and once again add extra value to the space with an extra living area. We also have plans to landscape both the back and front yard.

Our vision in the end is a clean, modern looking house filled with light, but that feels comfortably and lived in. We would like to make the house as sustainable as possible, and are looking at putting in LED down-lights through the entire house, when we put in the new garage we will look at adding solar panels to that for the house. We have plans to add water tanks, and already have a bore. When we put in new lawns we will be installing underground drips, so not only will it save water, it will be easy to maintain for tenants when this eventually becomes an investment property... Phew, when do we hope this will be over? Well, hopefully by the end of next year, if not sooner. This is our mission, get it done within a year of buying it! Can we do it? Keep posted.

My next posts will go through the process of painting, and show our journey of each individual room.

Why you should read this blog!

I am hoping that this blog will be a source of inspiration to people that are renovating, or looking to renovate so they can learn from our mistakes and do it right the first time around, or even learn from our 'do it right first time round' achievements.  Hopefully this blog won’t just be a ‘letter’ to my friends and family to keep them updated on the progress of our house, but instead a window into our world and home, where we can share our laughs, frustrations and triumphs.

My partner and I are first-time renovators, and this is our first house, so it is very important to us to do it right, but we are also rather clueless when it comes to the know-how of renovating. Therefore we have spent hours combing the World Wide Web to find tutorials on things like gyprocking , laying laminate flooring, tiling, installing a toilet, installing a kitchen, and painting. We have also spent hours scouring the internet trying to look for the best and cheapest deals, as we are not locals to South Australia, and are not aware of all of the hidden stores that have the best deals, or the cheapest and most reliable tradies to use. 

I would therefore like to use the hours and hours I have spent searching the internet for the best deals, and post links to the best tutorials and information that we have found and utilised. So that others people can benefit from our crossed eyes and hopefully avoid having to get glasses themselves (not that I have to, my eyesight is perfect, just slightly strained) by conveniently finding the information they need on our blog. 

So not only will this blog take you through the creation of our renovation, but it will also hopefully be a source of information for DIY, and the best places and things to buy, and inspire and teach others. Over time I would like this blog to mimic others like Young House Love, and offer not only the fun of the journey, but be a source of knowledge in tutorials and information on a range of DIY; from renovation, landscaping, sustainability and interior design, to cooking and craft.

Why I am writing this blog

I have created this blog mainly for the purpose of keeping my family and friends informed on the progress of the house. Why? You may ask, why can’t they just come around and see the house? Well my partner is in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and we have moved around a fair bit over the last couple of years. As such, we now have a lot of friends spread all over Australia, and all of our family is in other states. I therefore thought the creation of this blog would be a fun and visual way to keep our friends and family updated on the progress of our house, allowing them to visit us in the privacy of our own home, online, and share with us the frustrations of our failures and joys of our triumphs as we post them.

I have so many things going on at the moment, between work, study and general life, and the house is a major focus of ours at the moment. It most definitely diverts my attention away from study and catching up with friends, be it in person or over the phone (sorry guys!).  It is the main topic of all of our conversations, not only between my partner and myself, but it is almost the first thing anyone asks me these days, with: ‘how’s the house going?’ My answer: ‘slowly’. The reason the house is such a source of topic is that we are trying to do it all ourselves (DIY), and trying to get it done as quickly and cheaply as possible. The first day we officially owned the house we started gutting it, by the end of the day we had a full skip bin, had pulled up all of our carpets, most of the cupboards, and part of the kitchen. By the end of the first week, we had no kitchen, no cupboards, bare sub-flooring, and quite a lot of open walls, this was in June. We now have most of the floating floor in, most walls and ceilings painted, half of the kitchen and half of the toilet completed, and all of our walls up. Here you can see some photos of our bare walls and subflooring.

What was the kitchen

Hallway in progress with first gyprock sheet up

 Hopefully one day (in the near future? Here’s hoping) when we have finished renovating the house, we can look back at this blog and amaze ourselves at the transformation that we have brought about with our own hands, the amount of work we have done, and how much we have accomplished over such a short period of time.

My Avatar

You can see the picture I have chosen of myself on my blog. This is called an ‘avatar’, a personal representation of myself in the online world. I have chosen this particular picture, or two pictures, as they show the representation of my current selves, Regular Girl vs. Renovation Girl.

Side 1 features... Regular Girl, who likes looking nice, professional and put together, who you could imagine doing anything; working in a library or spending time with their partner and dog.  On the other hand, Side 2 features... Renovation Girl, who looks, well, like she has been renovating and doesn’t do anything else!