Home renovation: One woman, some power tools and a whole bunch of mess
Renovation Quotes
from local renovators
Introducing Kirsten, our new guest blogger. As the title suggests, Kirsten's a woman with a mission to create a home out of a house - and will eliminate anything (including walls) that stands in her way.
Here's Kirsten's story, from the very beginning
In September 2009 I bought my very first house. A Victorian terraced two-bedroom property, which had been renovated by the previous owner. Badly.
The house was an inspired blend of cheap yellow laminate flooring, bright orange stained wood, shiny badly applied vinyl paint, faux marble and dirty carpets. There were some truly inspired touches. The small orange picture frames that had been glued round each light switch and the knee height picket fence that had been erected round the patio particularly delighted me.
Apart from the aesthetic, the house had a few more serious problems as well. The inspection I had done before I purchased threw up some issues with the roof as well as rising damp in the back room downstairs. It’s times like that that you’re really pleased you’ve had an inspection done. I got quotes on this work prior to finalising the sale and got nearly $10K knocked off the price as a result.
But it wasn’t all awful; otherwise I wouldn’t have bought the house. It had a few original features left, big airy rooms, a large extension built on the back and an enclosed private garden for the dogs to run around safely and most importantly stacks of potential.
As with any renovation, things have not always gone smoothly, and at times I’ve been scared to do anything else to it for fear of what other horrors I might uncover. But with some persistence and a lot of hard work the house is now starting to come together. One of the most important things that I’ve learnt during the renovation is that there are some things that I simply cannot do myself. Sometimes it really is worth getting the professionals in to give you a hand.
This is the story of the house’s second renovation.
Renovation Quotes
from local renovators
