House Renovation – Everything else

As well as the main rooms mentioned so far, the renovation has included lots of other items as well. They are each relatively small, but keep adding it all up to a far more major and thorough renovation than we originally imagined, when first making the perhaps foolish decision whilst greatly sleep-deprived that, hey, as long as we were going to be pretty busy anyway with this whole parenting lark, let’s add the study of an MBA and a house renovation to our quota. (In case anyone is wondering, it is certainly not me doing the MBA! There are still plenty of nights where my brain is complete mush by 7:30pm, about the time that R is settling into a full evening of study having already worked a whole day and shopped and cooked dinner and we’ve done the bedtime routine together. I honestly do not know how he does it, but I think I am looking forward to it being over almost as much as he is).

These are the little niggly things that we’ve often said “Wouldn’t it be nice if…” or “I can’t wait until the day that we can change….”.  Little things like the water-saving on-demand hot water system. Great idea, except when it doesn’t work with the water saving shower head. We’d grown accustomed to the random temperature changes during our showers but it was really highlighted when I realised that we couldn’t shower with Monsieur because we had no control over when the water would be extremely hot or freezing cold.

A higher side wall and wider roller door. The original gate to our backyard was low enough that people walking by on the street outside could look in and see our entire living space. It made for some awkward early morning moments sometimes, when wandering around the kitchen preparing a bottle whilst breastfeeding, to catch the eye of a passer-by. A wider roller door was also a key aspect. As part of the council’s initiative to reduce cars on the roads, all buildings built post 2005 must provide off-street parking and are not eligible for parking permits. When we first moved in, I spent a long time on the phone with various people trying to explain that our house was not a post-2005 structure, that it was an Edwardian era house, built in 1919 for heaven’s sake. I finally reached someone who explained that the regulation applied to all houses that had any alterations done post 2005; including subdivision of land, which is where we fitted in to the equation. Our backyard is our off-street parking but, until now, we haven’t had to use it. We discovered when we initially did try to use it, that the gateway was narrow enough that any car parking within about a metre (can’t say that I ever measured it) of our gate, made it impossible for us to drive in or out of our yard. It hasn’t been a problem as there was untimed parking opposite our house, however the streets have become busier and busier over the past three years and parking has been harder and harder to find. We figured that it was only a matter of time before all the street parking nearby became timed or permit parking, so we needed to make our off-street parking a viable option. Sure enough, earlier this year, the parking on our side of the street switched from timed to permit only, and just last month the parking opposite us became timed parking. Right now, I am looking forward to being able to park just metres away from our door, instead of blocks!

There are a few more things, but I think the photos are pretty self-explanatory… oh, except for The Crack, which needs some explanation. The Crack is where the whole renovation project Got Big! The Crack is the reason for all the underpinning, for us having to move out, for so much of the work. We’ve been watching and worrying about The Crack for nearly three years now as it has gotten wider and longer. In a lovely twist, the council received no less than four phone calls from citizens who were concerned about The Crack caused by the building works going on in our house – how could we be so careless with our property and cause such damage??!!  Ha! Our builder endured a few council visits, patiently explaining that The Crack was being dealt with, that it existed long before the building works, that it was indeed the reason for much of the building works going on and these were all the things they were doing to comply with safety regulations. I’m still amazed that someone would complain about a crack in someone else’s house.

 

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