6 weeks and counting

OK, I know I said I'd get back to you about the floors a week ago, and I will, but I firstly need to acknowledge that our 6 weeks is up!!!

That's right, 6 weeks and 3 days actually.

So what have we achieved. Depressingly little, but so, so much. How? When you are living in it every day it's hard to see the changes. We are a week off completing the laundry, 2 weeks away from having all the sub flooring in, 4 weeks away from the back yard being completed, then we need to go through the whole council thing with the pool and I can't even think of when we will begin the bed room and en-suite.

We can afford to have another 7 days on the project on our savings for living expenses, then we need to go back to work and back into the part time renovations.

This has been one of the most fulfilling, challenging, demanding and enjoyable experiences. I am serious, I have loved it! But, we both acknowledge that we want to start to see an end game and we can only renovate for love, I don't think we could do this as an investment, it's too hard!

We've spent the past 3 days laying the tiles and grouting. My hands are red raw, even though I wore gloves and my back hurts from being on my knees for 3 days. Getting the tiles level is really difficult. As I was washing the grout off I could see every imperfection, all the level changes and differing gaps between each tile. I totally acknowledge the art of good tiling and in a way look forward to doing the ensuite so I can give it another go. Hopefully once the rest of the laundry is in you won't look at the little details.

Every time I think we are about to finish this laundry I realise there are another 10 steps. This afternoon we will hang the internal door but it will be at least mid-next week before we put in those damn cabinets.

L x

laundry progress and new friends in the neighbourhood

It's been another week and 2 major areas have been worked on - the laundry and the floors. I'll tackle the laundry progress first and come back to the floors tomorrow...

I had no idea how much time it would take but I'm loving every minute of it. Last week we waterproofed the floor, it was like putting down great lashings of whipped creme with blue colouring in it. Amanda and I found the flow. She installed the waterproof matting around the edges while I shuffled along next to her and dolloped the paste on top.

On Saturday we had a whole team here to install the cement bed. Our neighbour Henry spent 5 hours on his hands and knees laying it while our other neighbour Gary spent 5 hours in the afternoon sun mixing it. Thank you boys! Gary's wife Linda and kids Sam (26) and Stewart (14) spent the day here hanging out, playing Avatar on the Play Station and entertaining Hewitt. I was on official kitchen duties making ham, cheese and tomato rolls for the team and keeping it coming with dips, savoury and sweet biscuits, copious cups of tea and coffee and finally ginger beer.

Later in the day Henry's wife, Janine, turned up (who we have never met before). She and Henry have lived here for 39 years and at one stage were the furthest down the hill (they are three houses up from us) and watched all the surrounding houses being built. Janine is a great source of information about the history of the area and especially our house. She remembers this house being a point of interest as it was different from the typical brick house that surrounds it and in may ways ahead of it's time. It was open plan living and solar water heated way before it became fashionable, in fact, just today we replaced the solar hot water system after 27 years. The panels still work but it was producing calcium and rust that was blocking all our taps so we thought it best to go for it while we have the money (had to rob the fencing budget). Anyway, it was only when the initial owners sold it some 15 years later (to build another interesting home on the other side of Berowra) that it's downfall began and it was during this period that some very shoddy home builder renovations were carried out. It was then sold again - these owners did absolutely zilch to maintain it for the 8 years they lived here - so it became a house with great foundations but lot's of strange little add ons, unthoughtful renovations, no love or care and very poor workmanship. This is the state it was in when we came into the picture and after listening to Janines' memories I now feel we are doing not just a renovation but a loving restoration.

Tiling starts after the cement has cured - should be Friday and we will finally pick up the cabinets next week, yay! I am approx. $2000.00 over budget in the laundry. This is pretty extreme, I know, but as I've said before I completely underestimated this room. I'm going to do some nifty juggling and we will have to compromise somewhere else but I'm not too worried about it as I know, come next week, it's going to be all worth it.

L x

Work Wear

Amanda has many work outfits. This morning from 6:30am to 9am she was wearing purple denim shorts and a loose black T. This was Cementing Amanda. She then took a shower and changed into Carpentry Amanda featuring black sport shorts and a navy blue cotton drill shirt. Later she will change again - outfit TBC - to become plastering Amanda. We have a chest of drawers devoted solely to Amanda's work wear and today I will configure this into the design of our walk-in wardrobe.

The laundry is on it's way. We did think it would take 7 days but completely underestimated the amount of work involved, we have basically built the room from scratch. Right now we are putting in the noggings in the wall structure. The fibre cement flooring is in and Jayson has finished the pluming to this point - he'll be back when the cabinets are installed. Yesterday our neighbours Gary and Henry popped over for a sticky beak and have offered to float the cement flooring next weekend. This determines the levels and run off and as Henry is experienced in this we think it's best to wait for him to do it rather than rushing in ourselves. Before he can do this, 2 coats of membrane will be applied which take 48 hours each to cure so it would probably be late next week anyway. Thank you neighbours!

Last Thursday we chose our floor tiles - lovely Italian charcoal 300mm x 300mm on special for $28/sqm from a tile warehouse in Alexandria. We were going to go with long 600mm x300mm tiles but discovered that the bigger the tile the more difficult to install and 300mm x 300mm is the largest we should attempt.

Everyday I walk into the new laundry space and act out doing the laundry, opening and closing imaginary doors and turning on non-existent taps. It's a strange pleasure and I must go now as I have some laundry to do...

L x

wet areas...

I know, I've been slack in writing but it's been all systems go here since Friday (sorry Claire!). I actually wrote a post on Saturday but Hewitt deleted it before I published it and as we've been working from early mornings to late evenings I haven't had the time or energy to face the computer until now. I couldn't get upset with him as we've been neglecting the poor boy. Yes, play whatever you want on the computer Hewitt, Mummies discussing drainage. Hence, blog gone.

We have the structure of a new room - the laundry. On Saturday the first tradie came in, our fabulous plumber, Jayson from Aqua drop (35 years old and has 5 children!). Anyway, after Amanda ripped up the floor he set about making sense of our labyrinth of pipes and drains that were previously servicing our en-suite. Amanda was so excited she could barely contain herself, believe it or not she loooooooves drainage. In fact she told me that she hasn't been this excited since the day we first met.

After a few conversations about whether or not we should have a floor waste in the laundry - by law we don't need one as we are putting in an external door and it will make the tiling exercise easier but on the other hand there is one existing in the right position and it will serve a purpose if the washing machine ever leaks - Jayson mentioned something about the cement floors. I was a bit perplexed as we were planning to install the same sub flooring as in the rest of the house. You do know you need to install a compressed cement sheet floor in the wet area, don't you? he said. Hmmm, I said, let me have a chat to Amanda...

OK, we didn't know this and have since spent three days researching it. Each forum, blog, website, Bunnings Warehouse staff member and tiler, whom we have drained every last drop of information out of, has told us something slightly different but at 2am this morning Amanda finally had herself a plan of attack. Tomorrow the fiber cement sheets will be delivered and we will have the first stage of the flooring.

In the meantime we had to design the layout so that Jayson could install the new pipes in the correct position. I have a meagre budget of $1,500 for cabinets so had decided to go with the smart pack style as they are the cheapest option. I played around for hours with the specs in different configurations. The main purpose for the cabinetry is a linen and storage closet as we have lived for the last 3 years without one - having to put up with dumping everything in no particular order in the spare room. The best price I could get it down to was $2,300, $800 over budget and believe me this was a compromised look. Then it occurred to me, IKEA. I checked out the web-site and there I saw some gorgeous orange high gloss cabinets. We were straight in the car and off to Homebush, dragging a begrudging Hewitt along for the ride. With the help of a somewhat unhelpful Ikea staff member I used the in-store design software and created a perfect combination of cabinetry - a block of orange on top and white along the bottom - all for $1,614.85, including bench top, kick boards and sink. Bless you, Ikea!

Along with the work in the laundry we have also picked up a tonne of sandstone from Monavale Tip for $10.00 and lugged it up the back, completed the painting of the front walls, finished the little sandstone retaining wall at the front to plant our beautiful Alamanda Jamaican Sunset vine to screen out the cranky homophobic neighbour and pulled out 3 green bin's worth of weeds from the pile of dirt in the back.

Yes, we are motivated right now, with only 4 weeks to go let's hope we can keep it up...

L x

The triangle theory

This week I almost regretted opening my eyes to the way we deal with money. It was certainly easier when we were living the money comes /money goes lifestyle. But we've spent the week digging through the pile of dirt out the back and it's given us plenty of time to reflect. We came back to our rock climbers theory - you need 3 firm footings or a strong triangle hold to climb a mountain - so we applied this to our mortgage application.

The borrowing triangle should look like this;

1. strong credit history
2. Regular income
3. good deposit

Our credit history, due to not paying our mortgage on time is weak, the regularity of our income - or more to the point how we deal with the irregularity of our income is weak and our deposit or the capital in our house (due to it being undervalued because of the renovation) is also weak. We have no firm footings so this got me thinking...

The loan company were taking their sweet time with processing the application and we only had the choice of one lender. We were approaching it from only one POV - desperation! To strengthen the points in our triangle I had to think outside the square.

1. Commit to paying our mortgage on time every fortnight to strengthen our credit rating. Tick
2. Pay ourselves a regular income from the business. Tick
3. Complete the renovations. hmmm

1 & 2 are relatively easy as we have the income we just need to change the way we deal with it. No 3 took some extra thought. So...we approached my bank about extending my personal loan and believe it or not, they agreed!!!

Today we signed on the dotted line. This means that we are committed to completing by June. The next 4 weeks (as we are already 2 weeks into the project) are about the original list and then we'll take a couple of months (on and off) to put all the finishing touches on and put the pool in.

Once the reno is complete we will have tripled the capital in the property. In June we also receive our next mortgage statement and can show a tax return for both of us. This will completely change the banks perceive us!

Wow, what a week. The stress and anxiety nearly got the better of me. I had no idea this part of it was going to be so hard. It's been a very big learning curve though but I think I might be getting the hang of this money thing...

L x

Plodding along...

We drew up a concept plan for the back this morning. It transforms our back from a gigantic pile of dirt to a really usable area viewed through the glass from the living area. One bonus about being a dreamer is that we have been able to see through the pile of dirt and envisage what it will become. This day is getting closer and it's what's keeping me positive right now.

On the money front we are in limbo. All the forms are in and I'm waiting on the valuer to make an appearance. All we can do at the moment is keep our fingers crossed.

I've been reading about ways to get out of debt so yesterday I drew up a budget for every factor in our life. It's daunting but certainly gives me a feeling of control over an area of my life that I normally allow to control me. Did you know that if you pay an extra $31.00 off your mortgage a year you can save approx. $15K in interest and a year off the life of your loan. I've also read that you should never use credit for something that doesn't appreciate. I guess this is everything except your house. Ah! How are we going to exist in this society!

Back into it. I'll keep you posted.

L x

Still waiting on the money!

Our mortgage broker has pulled a rabbit out of the hat and has found someone who is prepared to look at our application! It all depends on the valuation now. Because the house is partially renovated, and they only value on the condition it is in right now, we could have problems. Floors up and walls down don't help but we are trying to remain optimistic. We should know by Tuesday so wish us luck...

Yesterday I won 60 pieces of sandstone on ebay for $34.00. Today, Amanda and Hewitt drove all the way to Penrith to pick them up only to discover that 3/4's of it was pieces the size of you hand. Half a days work for half a retaining wall - not happy. But...

We have just been told from our neighbour that they are selling beautiful, chunky blocks of sandstone for a $30.00/tonne at St Ives tip. I think we'll be taking a trip there next week.

L x

Day 2 & 3

Yesterday was exhausting. We didn't get enough sleep from going out on Monday night and it was hot again. Instead of working on the house I attended Hewitt's first swimming carnival. I was really nervous for him as he's not a strong swimmer and I thought diving in the deep end and even swimming the 25m short course was above his ability. But I was completely surprised. There were quite a few boys who didn't make it but Hewitt swam beautiful freestyle the whole way and ended up 4th! Very proud mum!

Amanda completed the last coat of paint on the front of the house. It's now true black. That's right, completely pitch black. It's really beautiful as the whole house disappears into the surrounding trees - a very theatrical trick, I know. 2 years ago we began painting it and chose a timid blue/grey. After the second coat we agreed it was too pale but the darkest we could get in an exterior paint was charcoal. Recently Taubmans produced a true black, so take 3, we've finally got it right.

This morning we faced our first major block...monnnnneeeeeeey! Our mortgage broker came over and the short story is that because we are both self employed and (I hate to have to admit!) have defaulted on our mortgage more than a few times we are stuffed. We both have maxed out credit cards used to finance the reno so far, and I have a personal loan which was originally borrowed to top up the deposit for the house - we needed 20% deposit and only had 12%. The personal loan is the only statement that doesn't default and we have paid off $25K, but everything else looks pretty sad. The problem is servicing our current financial situation and carrying out the reno is what's putting us behind. If we could re-finance, pay off the laon, credit cards and complete the reno we would be able to sink all our money into the mortgage and get ahead but first we need to get a clear run on the existing mortgage to get any conforming lender to take us seriously. It's a downward spiral and it left me feeling pretty hopeless. Our mortgage broker is going to give it a whirl but doesn't like our chances. We should hear something in the next 24 hours...

So we dragged ourselves out into the never ending pile of rocks, dirt, weeds and cat shit - lovely. As we were digging away Amanda pointed out that Bear from Man v's Wild (SBS 8:30 Monday nights) say's when you are rock climbing you need 3 firm footings to continue up the mountain. So what are our financial footings? 1. We have a house that will exceed it's original purchase price by an estimated 50% when it's completed. 2. We both have decent earning capacities. 3. I'm struggling to think of a third right now. Neither of us have much respect for money. We earn it and we spend it. I have a terrible habit of filing the bills away and forgetting about them, I then think the money we have is disposable, spend it and panic when the reminder notices come in. All this has got to change, it's time to look my fear and disrespect of money in the face. No. 3 needs to be our commitment to pay off what we have borrowed.

The other revelation I had was that the area of the back garden we are working in is our feng shui money corner. Right now it's in exactly the same state as our finances. But we're putting in the foundations and clearing through the mess. It's certainly an inspiration to complete this area and if the reno has to be put on hold because we can't finance it at least we can clear up this corner of our lives.

L x

Day 1

It was a 7:30am start. I began by bundling left over branches from a tree that we had cut down a couple of weeks ago and stacking them in the wood pile. Half an hour later I was getting over it, my back was hurting and I'd nicked my finger, anyway it was time to get Hewitt organised for school. Good excuse.

Amanda on the other hand was straight into it. She has completed 80% of a sandstone retaining wall which runs the length of the side of the house. This was originally a dark passage of privet and she's turned it into a beautiful view from our bedroom windows. Now for the hard bit, the curve into the back garden. She was on a mission - mixing cement, stacking stones, digging trenches...

After dropping Hewitt off I went into my comfort zone. With my project managers hat on, I began making calls about re-financing, council regulations for above ground pools, ETC. Did you know that you can put build an in ground pool if it complies with simple regulations without a DA but not an above ground. I mentioned to the woman in the planning department that this was odd as obviously the building works that are required for an in ground pool far exceed those of an above ground and she said "I don't write the regulations, I'm just telling you!". OK.

Anyway, at this stage I'm feeling pretty good about my progress, 6 weeks is pushing it but with a little help from our friends it is achievable. Speaking of which as a director it's all about surrounding yourself by the right people and this is how I intend to approach this project. Already we have offers. Thank you to Martin - a TV lighting director - who is swapping a day of electrical work for Amanda's help in the garden, Nikky - a interior designer - who is booked in next week to go over the design for the bathroom and Libby - an organiser extraordinaire - who is putting in a day on Friday to help me get ready for the garage sale (more on this later.)

So, as I said I'm feeling pretty good and I decide to read about the Tropfest winner on line. Amanda's still out digging and she spies me through the office window and... it's on! She says she can't do this with out my help and I've just put all this extra pressure on her by committing to a deadline. I say what do you think I've been doing all morning? You always think your work is harder than what I do! To tell the truth, I was procrastinating, it's hot outside, I'm scared of hard physical labour, it is all feeling a bit overwhelming. So I begrudgingly finished the wood pile and then picked up the spade and began to dig a trench. My mood subsided as I dug. Amanda gives me such great praise for so little, i think she was just relieved to have me out there with her. And the hard physical work actually feels really satisfying.

So it's wrap up time. We are off to see Hat's Off tonight. Last year I directed this concert, this year I am going to sit back and be entertained after a hard days work.

Till tomorrow...

L x

The Renovation

In June 2007 Amanda and I brought an original 1970's house in need of renovation in Berowra at the start of the beautiful Hawkesbury River, an hour north of Sydney. Amanda needed space, I needed a change and we both wanted our son, Hewitt to grow up out of the city and surrounded by nature. Plus it was cheap!

Although Amanda is a landscape designer and has renovated previously we were both extremely naive about the extent of renovations we were taking on. I was sure the house would be finished in 6 months and we would be entertaining family and friends on the deck by the pool by Xmas. Ha! It's 3 1/2 years later and we are still spending every weekend digging, hammering and sanding and every last cent we earn on timber, pipes, paint, nails, the list goes on. Renovating is hard work, renovating without surplus cash is harder!!!

So why write a blog 3 years down the track?

Yesterday we made a decision - let's set ourselves a challenge, re-finance and with a budget of $30,000, (after paying off the 3 maxed out credit cards and personal loan) complete the renovations in 6 weeks.

We are definitely over the half way mark, in fact it may be 75% complete, it's hard to say because as we've finished something in the past 3 years we forget the original state it was in. But if you think this is a small task think again, we still need to complete the laundry, en suite, front lounge room, flooring and pool (that's right all with $30K!).

I also have to admit that the major part of the reno so far has been carried out by Amanda's bear hands. I am a theatre director and I'm sure those who know me will agree that my strength is my vision. I am very good a standing back and seeing the outcome in my head, I'm not so good at participating in the outcome unless I am instructing others how to create what I see.

But all that is about to change. As of tomorrow I am project manager, designer, carpenter, landscaper, painter, brickie and labourer. I will post a schedule of works and before and after shots daily for you to check out.

Let's do this...

L x