Home Sweet Home

Nine years ago today DeepSpice and I bought our house at auction. I can't believe it's been this long!

In that time, we have done a lot of work to the house and garden, including:

• extending the garage to create a workshop space for DeepSpice;
• restumping the entire house;
  
• tearing down the back of the house (including the asbestos-laden fibro cement lean-to) and rebuilding it, creating an open plan kitchen/meals/lounge room and adding a laundry;
• renovating the bathroom and adding an en-suite;
• replacing the decking on the front verandah with recycled Jarrah boards;
• installing ethernet cable and data points in every room (just a few years before wireless became common place, rending all this work a bit pointless!);
  
• repaving the driveway and sideway with new concrete, and adding a new path to the front door;
  
• polishing the floorboards throughout the house (after removing the ugly old axminster carpet);
• putting in an air conditioner (sorry environment, but this was something I really wanted when BallFiend came along... breastfeeding a newborn in 40 degree heat is no fun at all);
• landscaping the front and rear gardens;
• painting the entire house, inside (ourselves) and outside (paid some painters);
• installing canvas awnings outside and new blinds and curtains inside;
• installing a security screen door at the front;
• rebuilding the fence and putting in a new gate;
• getting built-in wardrobes installed in the bedrooms;
  
• and probably quite a few other odds and ends that I can't think of at the moment.
  

Photos...

Before:Front facade

Rear of house

old bathroom
(matching pink bath, just out of view to the left;
and no laundry - just a washing machine in the near corner)

Old kitchen (no pantry, just badly installed shelves out of shot to the left - by badly installed,
I mean shelves nailed and screwed into the plasterboard.
When it was demolished, we counted 19 nails/screws holding in one bracket alone!)

During:

Front garden just landscaped. November 2006.

Back garden - just landscaped, March 2008.

Driveway - new trees planted.
This photo taken in December 2003; trees to either side had been in for about a year.

Plastering done and floors polished. June 2007.

After:
There is no 'after' renovation! Anyone who has ever renovated a house knows that there is always one more thing to do. In our case, several more things to do. Including:

• finish some of the painting (architraves, doors and wardrobes)
• restore original metal window opening fittings (strip paint, reinstall, etc.)
• replace sash cords in several windows
• build in more storage in bathrooms, bedrooms, study
• get a new gate installed across drive way
• plant more things in the garden (the garden bed along one side of the driveway is still bare!)
• finish unpacking all the crap we stored in the garage while we renovated!!
  

However, I will endeavour to take some 'after' photos of our renovated house and add them to this post at some time soon.

So, what now?

It's been a good place to live overall, but with enough annoyances (primarily being on a main road; a nasty neighbour and a floorplan that isn't ideal for a growing family) that I have found myself scanning the real estate supplement of the local paper on numerous occasions, pondering where we could move to that would:

1. not be located on a main road, but would still be near public transport;
   
2. keep us near to all the lovely friends we have in the local area;
3. not be too far from family members that live in various nearby suburbs;
   
4. be cooler in the heat of Summer;
   
5. have all the nice amenities that aren't available round here, like nice parks and good schools, and
6. not require us to win a tattslotto jackpot in order to afford it!

This line of thought then leads me to 'when?'. Should we move now before the kids start school, or wait until just before BallFiend is due to start secondary school? We are so indecisive, that I won't be surprised if we never get around to moving at all!
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