When we moved to Kiama a year ago we figured it would take us a couple of year to get settled in. We had hopes of being able to buy a home at some point after that but we weren’t sure if it would be in Kiama or a neighbouring suburb or town. Well, to our surprise we’ve bought a house almost a year to the day after arriving in town!
If we were able to buy a house we knew it would probably be the worst house in the street at the lowest end of the property market. And while this one isn’t the wost house around, it does need some love. What it has going for it, other than the right price, is that it’s a solid house at the end of a cul-de-sac, great size living spaces and reasonable size bedrooms (3 of them), a great size laundry, a deck and a good size yard. The only down side of the structure itself is that there’s only a single car garage and no room to extend it to a double. Oh well, the cars have lived on the street for the past year so a little more outdoor living won’t hurt them.
We’re still a couple of weeks away from final settlement but we are lucky enough that the current owners have already moved out so we’ve been able to take a good look around at the house in it’s empty state and see exactly what we need to do. As I said, the house needs a little love in order to give it a new lease of life, but the structure’s sound so it’s mostly cosmetic. The list of thing that we have to do is short but essential … the list of what we’d like to do on the other hand is a bit longer, a tad more complex and full of thing that we’ll have to tackle over the next few months.
At the moment our office wall is covered in my lists and inspirational photos … and yes, my husband does think I’m a little crazy. But getting it out on paper stops me from laying awake thinking about it all night
So, here’s the list of stuff that we want to get done BEFORE we move in. Yep, you read that right, before we move in.
- Paint EVERYTHING – ceilings, walls, cornice, skirting, doors, inside wardrobes …everything you can think of.
- Flooring … carpet in the living and bedrooms and bamboo boards in the hall and kitchen & dining area. We’re going to attempt laying the boards ourselves so I’ll keep you updated on how that goes. We’ve also got some slate in the entrance to pull up, and we’ll probably pull up all the carpet and lino ourselves as well.
- New skirting boards – the existing ones are in pretty bad shape so we’re pulling them all out and replacing them. We’ve bought some never used ones of eBay and will install them ourselves.
- Reconfigure the laundry door area – The laundry is at the end of the back of the house at the end of the hall. There’s a very deep linen cupboard right at the end of the hall. We’re going to pull that linen cupboard out and put a sliding door across the end of the hall which will make the laundry space bigger.
- Pulling out the oversizes built in wardrobe in the master bedroom. We’ll probably have to use the 3rd bedroom wardrobe for a while until we decide what to do.
Thankfully my Handsome Hubby is a supper handy guy, I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty, my dad is a handy guy as well and my brother is a carpenter. I’m sure Little Miss will also get in and give us a hand as she loves to help out even though she’s only two!
The list of things that we’d like to do is much longer. Some of it we know we’ll be able to tackle pretty soon, some of it will take some time because we need to live in the space for a while first and some of it we’ll have to save up for … should make for an interesting time.
It includes things like reconfiguring the bathroom to create a family bathroom, ensuite and walk in wardrobe. Yes, it’s big enough for all of that! Rebuilding the existing deck as some of the woodwork needs replacing and extending it across the back of the house. This will include knocking a hole in the brickwork and putting in some doors across the back of what is the dining area. This will let in a lot more light and give us a great outdoor space. And the list goes on …
Jackadaw will be a place for us to keep track of progress, ideas and before & after shots.
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