the renovation begins

A quick renovation recap. Quotes of over half a million dollars and a painfully slow development approval process that saw Sal pregnanat with Harrie before we'd got anywhere near building resulted in us selling the 2 bedder in Willoughby and buying the Seaforth Bunker. A far smoother development approval (with Manly Council) and a quote coming in at a little under a quarter of a million and we're ready to do a few alterations. And by that I mean ready to pay Stuart, one of the builders who quoted for us in Willoughby, to do the work. So about three years later than expected we're ready to build.

There is not a lot wrong with the house. It is ugly as hell, but solid. Really very solid. It was built in 1962 by the builder who owned it. He was not short of bricks. Or concrete. It is a bunker. The windows are fairly shitty, but the rest would survive a nuclear strike. It sits on a 450sqm block that is 50m long with a street frontage at each end. It is 2 storey to the noisier northern end and single story at the quieter southern end. The house is 7m wide, so sort of long and skinny. Our renovation-stroke-alteration will have the effect of spinning the house through 180 degrees. At the moment the kitchen and living area are on the first floor and look out to a busy road; the other has the master bedroom and sunroom sitting a little above ground level and facing a quiet road. We're moving the bedrooms towards the noisy end; it isn't noisy at night and beefed-up glazing will keep it quiet. At the more peaceful end we'll combine the sunroom, master bedroom and Harrie's bedroom to make an open plan kitchen-dining-casual-living area. Bi-fold doors will open to a 6mx4m deck and we'll retain a bit of garden to play with. A walk-in robe and ensuite off the master bedroom, a new kitchen and bathroom, a roof and shutters over the first floor verandah and a carport over our parking slab complete the picture.

It kicked off last week. Stuart had said he would start on Thursday. Drawing upon my considerable building experience I'd assumed that meant he would be getting clear on the job at hand, maybe doing some measuring. What it actually meant was jackhammering a hole in the floor of what will become our ensuite. Sal, who was working from home on Thursday, said it was a bit loud. The plan is to complete the northern, downstairs bit first. That will give us the laundry and bedroom (that are not being altered), our new master bedroom, walk-in robe and ensuite and a "front" door and hallway. While that happens we live upstairs. When downstairs is finished we swap with Stuart. We move downstairs and Stuar moves up and to the southern end where he'll complete the kitchen-living-deck and the new bathroom. So yes, we are living on a building site, but the long-skinnyness of the house means that should be OK.

Each workday now ends a little like Christmas morning as I get home to the suprise of how much has been knocked down, dug up or added on (that will come later) since the morning.