Tuesday 14 August 2012

The big house reno's part 2


Continuing on from yesterday............



This is my western sun room. The dining room is to the left and the office is that tiny blue room straight ahead. The pinboard is useful, but a tiny bit ugly being in my sun room. The box to the left is actually a woodbox. You stick your wood in there, and get it out for the fireplace through the built in cupboards in the lounge room. I love it!

The windows were put in as an afterthought, I have no idea what sort of windows were there before. They are pretty windows that were reclaimed along with a door. The problem is, the door and windows were put in terribly. So the door doesn't close properly and there is a large gap. Also, we realised that the windows aren't straight. When we put a spirit level up to see why it looked strange, it is completely out of alignment.

I don't think we will be ripping them all out to straighten them up. But when I put curtains there, it will look strange as the rods will look like they are lopsided.

Can you see how weird the curtain rod looks with the window?


This is during the ceiling re plastering.


Just a cornice to go.

Most of the house walls are Masonite too, so there is all this timber quad covering up all the joins everywhere. It looks a bit random, but the budget dictates that we can't rip it all out, so it is there to stay.

I prefer a wall without joins everywhere, but I guess it is the character of the house. And it reminds me of the era it was built in.

This western sun room is beautiful on a winter's afternoon, but horrendous in summertime. The heat it generates is just like a furnace. I need to plant something on the pergola outside to cool it down. An awning wouldn't go astray too!


This is the southern verandah.

It is massive and lovely when it is hotter, not so nice in winter though! keeps the lounge room (on the left) really cool.

The front door goes on to the hallway, on the far back left. No one in the country uses a front door. Everyone uses the back entrance near my kitchen all the time anyway.

We sometimes sit out here on a hot night to eat dinner when we can catch a breeze.

Massive hole in floorboards

This hole bugged me for ages.

I was worried that snakes would come up through the boards and into the house. The very first thing I wanted done before we moved in was to patch the holes up in the floor. Any snake size holes had to be patched, as it would be my worst nightmare come true to find a big brown snake inside my house.


Another view of my verandah in the process of a new ceiling.

And of course I forgot to take pictures of second son's room and the eastern verandah before the change. Or I probably can't find the pics! If I do, I will post them.

Will show you some more in another post. Just so many to wade though in one hit!

5 comments:

  1. Hello again, I forgot to mention that not only will I be following your reno, but I may have to ask a few questions re farming later down the track (btw we've never lived on the land). You see, my husband wants to purchase some land (eventually) and has been doing some research on British Whites. Anyway it's still a bit of a pipedream at the moment! xx

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    1. Ask away!

      I have been a farmer all my life, as my parents are farmers. I married a farmer, and I can't imagine another life apart from this one!

      Very tricky to make money off the land though - the planets have to align perfectly! Don't let me put you off though, it is such a beautiful life to live, especially for kids.

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  2. Jo I love your house! Please don't rip out any windows, doors or those quad strips on the walls. I have seen houses historical quirkiness disappear for the sake of a blandly "perfect" wall.(Remember when Paul Hogan lost his laconic good looks when he fell for the smooth look via surgery?)Same goes when people take out wooden windows and pop in aluminium- fatal blow to a good looking house. Laura Ashley curtains esp vintage team well with older looking walls. Get some old wooden rods with wooden rings, set them high and with generous widths of Laura Ashley curtains voila gorgeousness!

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    1. Kathy, I agree with you on not ripping out features that let you know the era it is from.

      Thanks for your nice comments! :)

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  3. Looks like your house may be of the same vintage as mine... lol... masonite, quad, mouseholes - but you can't beat bucketloads of character.

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