Now for the framing up

October 28, 2015October 28, 2015 | Jessica

The photos you see are of the room being framed up into an ensuite and WIR. The builders have been here for 3 days and the plumber is here now roughing up the pipes for the mixer and the other stuff. The work is noisy and what with all the other building works going on in the street I’m hoping we have no shift workers living nearby. It’s a bun fight out there competing with the sound of band saws and hammers.

Sadly the ensuite is the only room in the house that has a stunning view of the city and so we decided we needed to be able to see it. DH and I demanded an enormous picture window in the ensuite: it’s so long, low and wide it may show the boobies when I shower, but it’s a pretty private space from the street (you’d need a pretty powerful telescope to look in). I’m assuming the whole window will slot into the frame they’ve mocked up for it and the tiled ledge will provide useful storage for strategically placed shampoo bottles. Stuff privacy. If people want to go to the trouble of looking at an old woman’s saggy boobies when she’s showering then I say go for it! (So did my builder, laughing.) Eventually we’ll put an outside awning in to protect the room from the fairly torrid Western sun, which will solve the privacy issue.

The room will be tiled to 2100mm with white 300×600 gloss tiles. The feature tile looks like this:

and then we’re putting in VJs thereafter, including the ceiling. As I said to Dylan from McPherson Constructions, there is no plasterboard anywhere in our house. Why start now? Also, we’ve decided to keep the interesting higgledy-piggledy shaped roof in the bathroom because I want to recognise the origins of the house and its oddness. The front gable was attached in a really weird way with lots of angles, so the bathroom ceiling will pay homage to these where possible.

We’ve just ordered the WIR and bathroom vanity. The vanity is a bespoke piece in a clean shaker style with a large porcelain bowl laid on a satin blackbutt top, with four legs and an open shelf for towels underneath. It should look beautiful and I’ve had fun deciding on the shaker doors, the height of the drawers, even which side the centre door is opened! As to the WIR, I’ve had SO much fun deciding which section is going to be full height, which double. I’ve planned a centre console for my jewellery and makeup booth (I’ve talked to the builder about putting a mirror in the back of it and LED lighting in the top). I’ve even got some serious shoe storage happening.

I’ve ordered and paid for all the tapware, which should arrive soon. It ended up being cheaper than I thought because once I lost my desire for enamel handles I found a cheap and cheerful substitute at Reece that looks EXACTLY the same. By that I mean less than 1/3 the price of the original. I went to a Reece store yesterday and found exactly what I was looking for. No need for substitute items! Dorf Luxton (now discontinued) is a good Australian brand for our slightly old-style towel rails and toilet roll holder; Posh Bristol is the brand and make of the sink taps. Porcher Cygnet is the name of our old-style shower with diverter for my own shower preferences. Posh Dominique is the back-to-wall close-coupled toilet, and there’s a couple of other things including shower mixer and vanity bowl. Amazing how impossible it is to find a brand that incorporates all my favourite looks and designs in one make. I also ordered and paid for these beautiful lights which will sit on either side of the mirror (design yet to be decided but I’m weirdly tempted by a rectangular mirror with a narrow soft brass frame or an oval black-framed mirror). They’re ridiculously old fashioned but there’s little in the bathroom that is, and it’s about the only piece of bling in there aside from the vanity taps. Because the glass shade is a regular size we can always buy different ones down the track for a change in appearance. I’ll finish off the room with a well-placed orchid (I have one that is flowering nicely), brand new towels and perhaps a crystal container or soap dish. Can’t hardly wait.

And we’re off!

October 25, 2015 | Jessica

Yes, you heard it here – the building has commenced! Well, not quite the building part exactly, more the cheap and cheerful renovation part. Dylan from McPherson Constructions is here ready to go with his worker John, the bin guy arrived at 6.30am waking me in fright, and we have cleared the West wing in preparation for the big rip-out.

There are photos of the preamble. It looks neat, tidy, and lovely. SO NICE FOR IT TO BE CLEAN AND WITHOUT FURNITURE. I say this in capital letters because I’m such a collector of things that we easily become overwhelmed with stuff. Stuff, it must be said, that is needed. This is what living without storage solutions does to one. Collections of stand-alone furniture that really just add visual clutter. Note to self: do I really need ALL the books?

Very soon this serene space will look ugly, dusty and overwhelming. And the beautiful polished hardwood floors will be hidden forever under cement sheeting and tiles. Very sad. But awesome!

(On a side note, my builder sings. Not that well, but cheerfully. And he whistles. This is a GOOD DAY.)

In which I aim for good humour and bon vivant.

August 24, 2015 | Jessica

Something I posted on my other blog… it’s about renovations so it counts!

I'm no superwoman.

This week I am determined to remain cheerful and not be grumpy with the world. Today we are having our hot water unit replaced at a breathtaking price but I keep forgetting that the last time I priced hot water units was about 15 years ago. So there’s some inflationary cost there. Or so I keep telling myself as I grit my teeth for the bill. The guy is here now, and we should have hot water by the late afternoon.

On another positive note, an electrician came to look at our job today. Granted, it’s not a small job because we will need a new powerboard and general updating of our old electrical circuits, but we have a Queenslander. It’s all completely accessible under the house, very little stooping or crawling into cavities. And I had budgeted for it. We’re just doing stuff arse about, is all. Said electrician…

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You know you’re living in an old unrenovated Queenslander when…

July 17, 2015 | Jessica

…

1/ It’s the Queensland equivalent of winter and it’s colder inside the house than out.

2/ All the windows are closed and there is still an arctic blast coming from all the gaps in the floorboards and window frames.

3/ In winter you can dry your clothes and they still get mildewy from the cold humidity.

4/ There is no ceiling, wall or floor insulation. This is supposed to be a GOOD thing?

5/ At least the water coming out of the cold water tap is cold in winter, not warm.

6/ The lawn doesn’t need mowing because winter equals no rain.

7/ The old louvre windows rattle in the wind.

8/ You don’t own a heater and you forget the air-conditioner also has a heating element.

9/ The warmest room in the house in winter is also the hottest room in summer.

10/ Your DH (who grew up in QLD) mutters something like “I didn’t sign up for this” while he’s dressing in an unusual 3 layers of clothing.

It’s been a while since my last blog post because nothing has been happening here in Harry’s place/renovation land. The architect has finished all his plans, I’ve signed off on them, as has the engineer, the compliance guy and the soil guy. Essentially we’ve paid $15,000 just to get the finished plans into Brisbane council. And we still haven’t got costings on the renovation yet. But I spoke to my builder and he’ll have some in by the end of next week. I’m assuming the total cost of the first set of renovations to be about $90,000. At least, that’s what I’m thinking by the time we replace doors and windows in the main house and add the extra room. I’m not quite sure where this money will come from given we have just finished a massively expensive trip to Europe and the next set of hideous bills have just come pouring in, including school fees. Gah.

More art.

April 8, 2015 | Jessica

Bought another beautiful piece of Indigenous art at auction on Monday. It perfectly complements the crazy over-crowded table of cheerful glass and pottery I keep buying. By Betty Mbitjana, (daughter of Minnie Pwerle), the work is bright and I’ve always fancied a small piece of hers. Very reasonable price, although not as coveted an artist as her mother. Pairs quite well with Toni Bucknell, too! Still waiting to paint the room bright white, which will complement the art better than the pale sand colour currently on the walls. And please ignore the awful curtain – it’s a privacy curtain and I hate it.

Nearly there with the drawings

March 30, 2015 | Jessica

The architect came round last week and our plans are nearly finalised. In fact, we’re pretty happy with the front of the house and only a little uncertain about the rear extension, which I discovered was smaller dimensions than I had anticipated.

The extra size I’ve asked the architect to do shouldn’t add too much to the total cost, given that most of it will be exterior deck.

In the meantime, though, we’ve come up with a great solution for the home studio. Here’s a photo of the plans:

The internal width of the room is 3.6 metres (huzzah!) and the length will be about 6.2 metres, although this seems longer than I expected, but the architect’s drawings indicate a total of 7.7 metres external length including 1.2 metres for the bathroom, so I guess this must be about right. There are windows at the front and side. It will be light and airy all day.

This is a fantastic size for a home studio/office/guest room. As you can see here, there is a landing at the bottom left of the drawing. You take one step down from the main house onto the landing and the powder room (with shower) is right there. It’s private yet importantly still accessible from both the main house and the studio, as it will be the main bathroom for visitors and party guests.

I’ve asked the architect to hide the toilet cistern in the wall, as there will be enough room to do this, and we can probably do the same with the vanity taps too, and possibly even a mirror cabinet. The shower recess will definitely have one of those handy recesses to hold shampoo etc.

We’ve even started to think about wall bed units for the studio. The left hand side is free wall space. I’m currently intending our sofa bed sit along that wall, but I’m tempted, dangerously so, for a wall bed unit that puts the bed out of sight until guests stay over.

Some of the ones I just investigated online are only as narrow as 30-40cm thick, which is almost as narrow as regular bookcases. Most of them come with surrounding bookcases to make it look a bit more built in, and plenty of people put paintings on the cupboard door to hide it even more.

There’s enough room to do this, but we won’t be buying them any time soon – we’ve still got to pay down the last credit card and set of school fees! Ooh, but I’m tempted…

The architect is coming! The architect is coming!

March 23, 2015March 23, 2015 | Jessica

This is it. Today is the day when I get to see all the plans finally laid out on paper. I’ll let you know how I get on.

When I spoke to my mum who’s a long-time renovator and savvy house planner we agreed the costs will be about 30% over what the bank has lent us to do minor renovations. To build the studio and renovate the front of the house, I think will cost about $120,000. She agrees. We were only extended about $80,000, which has to include architect’s fees. I can probably scrape together some more money but it’s fighting for supremacy with overseas travel plans, one remaining credit card bill (DH loves me but forgets that I have to pay the bill from his gifts to me) and the last remaining school fee mega hit (huzzah, and fees are halved after July).

So near and yet, so far. I guess the alternative would be to do the West Wing first, plus update the house front (giving us our 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms), then go to the bank and ask for more to complete the remainder.

This is probably the BEST and most cost-effective solution but it still doesn’t get us the extra studio space. Yet. However, when I did some sums on what we could feasibly borrow if our house was worth $900,000, we would have nearly enough for the whole remaining shebang. It depends, of course, on the builder’s costings. Our guy is not cheap, but he is thorough, and as far as I know provides an accurate cost appraisal. And if we don’t change too many things on the run our costs should remain consistent. Problem is, as soon as you add 10% overruns, 10% GST, architect and contractor’s fees, plus council fees, it cuts everything up. So the initial $80,000 becomes about $55,000. Not a lot of money left for building stuff.

But it MIGHT be enough to fix up the West Wing, do the electrics and plumbing, add 2 new bathrooms and renovate the facade, buy a new stove and fridge, plus change a wall in the main house and add built in bookcases. Ah, compromises. At least we still have walls and a mostly working roof.

(Small Edit: I’ve not put a careful figure on our renovations but I believe it’s in the vicinity of about $3000 per square metre. I think this is too much, and when I put $2000 per square metre against the renovations it all becomes much more reasonable, also given that our house is a simple wooden cottage it’s not too expensive to change it.)

The first better bathroom plan

March 14, 2015 | Jessica

The first of our three planned better bathrooms will be approx 2.7 metres long and 1.2 metres wide. It’s tiny, but as I said to DH and wrote to the architect, I don’t love my clients that much. I’d rather have 30cm more living space – this is the same space that will house several bookcases, a desk, a couch, side tables, music stuff and a small piano, so it needs to be large.

The bathroom, though, can be teensy tiny. I’ll decorate it in a look that will emulate the style I’d like the rest of the house to have: probably a combination of white subway tiles and dark flooring. It’s easy to find gorgeous tiny bathrooms on the web. Here are a few ideas below, with the first image being the basic plan and size:

Obviously the sink won’t be ugly and the shower won’t have a ghastly base on it. It may indeed look something a little like this:

bathroom

Or this: bathroom1

Or this:

Or even this:

I quite like all of these images even though I’m starting to see a preponderance of marble. I don’t need marble. Or slate. What I DO want are subway tiles on the wall surrounding the sink and toilet, a larger subway-laid white tile in the shower (because have you SEEN our mould problem on the grout???) and dark, easy care tiles on the floor.

I’ll happily go for a wood-style tile on the floor too, if it ties in with the studio. And I’ll certainly enjoy a chevron-laid floor tile if it isn’t too expensive to cut all those tiles and lay them. We also don’t need much storage in this bathroom so a floating vanity would be fine, or even an old-fashioned sink, like so:

The only problem I see with this sink is there’s nowhere to hide the cleaning products and toilet paper, 2 things I believe are pretty important in a bathroom, especially given we have no storage in the rest of the house. So we may go with a floating vanity instead, which will give the illusion of more space, but the versions I’ve seen on the web are so ugly I can’t even show them here. What I do know is that as SOON as this bathroom is created it will be the ONLY bathroom then used, such is the appalling ugliness of our other mould-infested, rotting bathroom. Once again, so excited I could SPIT.

My studio room will look something like this…

March 14, 2015March 14, 2015 | Jessica

I found this picture of my (mythical) studio space. It’s not quite perfect, but it does give you an idea of what I’m hoping to achieve. My studio room will be 5.3m long by 3.5m wide. On the far end (pictured) you will find a bookcase with built in desk and maybe some built in filing cabinets too. It will look a lot like the picture except with those added extras. On the window side (pictured) there will be under-window bookcases, probably the cheap Ikea white Kallax ones, because we already have 3 of those, and they are perfect for holding magazine folders and coloured boxes. They look like this and go vertically or horizontally, and at 147 cm long, 77 cm high and only 39 cm deep are a bit of a space saver.

We may even put a long white laminate bench over the top of them to style that section, and perhaps another bank or two of drawers.

I will definitely have a Persian rug on the floor, but the size I want will be quite expensive (even at auction), so I’ll have to make do with a cheaper Indian one for a bit. The windows will be casement, not sash, in keeping with the rest of the house, but I quite like sash windows, so we’ll see about that – we may end up with double glazed white aluminium ones, which actually look fine. The ceiling will look exactly as you see it. It will be a skillion ceiling, and I’ll have LED downlights, which will save on power. While I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE solid timber floors (none of that click-flooring nonsense), we probably can’t afford it, so I’ll have vinyl timber-look tiles instead – they look and feel better than expected and are a cheap alternative to my preferred choice, plus they help keep noise down.

We already have an attractive sofa-bed from Freedom in a neutral brown-grey:

It will be easy to decorate this sofa as it looks great with most colours from beige, grey tones to warm reds, bright yellows, greens and blues. I’ll just need to decide how to decorate the room, given that I’m going with neutral bright white on the walls. It will sit on the wall opposite the windows (not shown) and be a good place for students to dump their stuff. I also already have some attractive lamps from Ikea, which are the cheap versions of the expensive designer brushed metal ones cashing in on the steam punk thang:

Floor lamp Ikea

As for cushions, well, I have them all. Lots and lots just waiting to be re-purposed to my new room, in all colours and designs from Marimekko to young-designer-market made. I also have lots of wall art needing new homes. Some of my wall art is quite dramatic and features Melbourne icons:

As you can see, lots of white, black and red, which, although perfect in a work office, might be a little dramatic and cold in a home office. Last year I decorated my DH’s work office in similar colours, with a deep grey feature wall and lovely soft lamps. We shopped at Dare Gallery (side table and dining chairs), Freedom (lamps and occasional chairs), Matt Blatt (table and coffee table), Far Pavilions (shelving unit) and The Desk Place (desk) for furniture items. The room looks amazing, and we bought quite beautiful Aboriginal art for that dark space, but this home office will be lighter, so I can’t really keep art on the wall where it might fade in the sunlight. There will be some natural wood features in an occasional chair and free-standing mirror, too. I do like my brown furniture even though it’s completely out of fashion.

The front of the room will have its own entryway with a “cricket bat” front door, with casement windows on each side of the door, looking out onto a small porch landing and the front yard. I have no pictures of this – it only works in my head. But I can dream!

The house that Jess built.

My Queenslander Cottage

Author: Jessica