| Episode 6 - Clare and Drew |
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 OUR RENO STORY! I write this as Drew and I are chilling out with a glass of wine enjoying our newly renovated kitchen/living/dining/outdoor areas. It's amazing what a bit of white and mint green paint can do to make you feel calm and relaxed! But I guess I should start from the beginning... We had big plans for our place. A year ago, we moved into our inner-city townhouse, with dreams of knocking out walls, building new ones, adding bedrooms and I think at one stage there was even talk of installing a lap pool on the roof! Our renovation eyes were a little bigger than our renovation stomachs. We decided to focus our attention on the just first level of our house, the kitchen, dining, living areas, and the front and back balconies. These areas were the biggest priority for us as it's where we spend most of our time, whether it's cooking, eating, entertaining or just relaxing. The most important thing for us was to open up the kitchen and make the whole area open-plan, which started by removing the L shaped wall that isolated the kitchen from the rest of the house. Two things you can expect from wall removal is alot of noise, and a lot of dust. Because the wall was structural, we needed to install a steel post and beams for support. Ideally it would have been great not to need a post in the middle of the room, but we had been wanting a random stone feature in the house, and the post was perfect to box out clad around. After getting a couple of pricey quotes, we decided to take on the stone cladding ourselves. Once we started, we realised why the quotes were so high. Talk about time consuming. Cutting the stones, lugging them upstairs, planning where to stick them, then actually getting them to hold onto the column without falling on the floorboards... It definitely wasn't fun, but I think it turned out pretty cool in the end. Drew ripped out the old, outdated kitchen, and a few days later it was time for the new cabinets to be installed. A few days after that came the stone bench top, then the appliances, sink and taps. Being without a kitchen for a couple of weeks was pretty difficult, and not a lot unlike camping (which I hate)! But once everything was in and everything was functional, all the dust and thai take-away really seemed worth it! Once those major changes were made, and all the annoying little jobs were done like patching holes and sanding, it was time for the fun stuff! Painting and decorating, a little bit of landscaping, and a heap of shopping! We left the front and back balconies basically as they were, and just added a whole lot of astro-turf, pebbles and pavers, yukkas and cacti and our pink flamingoes. I feel like it's these final touches that really changed the whole feel of our house, and now we really feel like it's our home and not just a house we're living in. One of the biggest things we've learned from this experience is nothing goes smoothly, happens on time or under budget, and sometimes you can't have everything that you want. But once things start coming together and looking how you pictured them way back in the beginning, it's really rewarding. And coming home to a space you love to be in is the biggest payoff of all.
Clare Hampshire and Drew Chilcott |
