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Renovating a house…. just to move out

We bought our cottage in the Blue Mountains in 2003, and it was a renovators delight. We were planning to renovate it quickly. However plans were changed when I found out I was pregnant a few months later. Suddenly the priorities had to change and the money was needed else where. Instead of the great kitchen, the nursery needed a window (“what’s wrong with no window?” the Country Boy asked) and a paint job. Also the amount of time we had to do the renovations diminished!

We redid the bathroom when I was pregnant with Meg, because I refused point blank to go through the final 3 months of pregnancy having to back into the bathroom to go to the toilet (it was tiny). Since then we have done bits and pieces to the house, but we still have the hideous pink carpet and 1980’s kitchen.

When we move to the country we plan to rent our house out. Unfortunately all the quirks of the house, which are manageable to us, make it not the greatest property to rent out. So we are trying to make our house more renter friendly.

On reflection, this is rather stupid. Why am I trying to fix the floor on the Laundry when I have put up with it for 8 years? Can’t the tenants just put out a bucket when it pours like we do? (apparently not). So our weekends now contain the small DIY projects that really should have been done years ago. At last I will get to live in a fixed up house…. At least for a month or 2!
The girls “assisting” us paint the living room.
What are your “horror” renovation stories? How long has it taken you to renovate a house?

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Comments

  1. katepickle says

    August 5, 2011 at 1:26 am

    Oh that would be SO frustrating.
    We had great plans to live in our old house for years when we bought it. We started renovating almost immediately and then I discovered I was pregnant with twins. That didn't deter us… we had no floor in the entire house except the bedroom in the early weeks of my pregnancy (made rushing to the bathroom to spew interesting) and at the end we had no kitchen or bathroom (luckily I was in hospital by then!). Eventually when our girls finally came home from hospital we had a fabulous almost finished renovation… then we discovered how feral our neighbours were, and how we couldn't bring up kids next door to people who threw things at us when we were in our back yard. SO we finished the last of the renos and sold the place 🙁
    At least now our only neighbours are cows and horses so hopefully this current reno is worth it!

    Reply
  2. Jo S says

    August 5, 2011 at 11:15 am

    I feel kind of jealous! It will be great for you when your renovation is done. Our new house in the country will also need a renovation… so we will be doing more for a good while yet!

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Jo

I'm a city girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a few presents, an afternoon swim and dinner on the veranda as the sun set. Time to stop and be thankful for the many blessings of the year. I hope you had a lovely Christmas too!
We have been mulling over how to fix up the drivew We have been mulling over how to fix up the driveway and lead up to our house for a while. Currently it’s just a dumping ground for old bits of metal and a big pile of mulch, but C would like to create a turning area and put in a garden. First up though, there’s a huge old stump that needs to go. What better excuse is there to have a fire on Sunday afternoon? C and the kids jumped on the quad bike and trailer, and hauled back a big pile of sticks and logs to help the stump burn. Once the fire was going, marshmallows were found and roasted. No better way to spend time together.
Team work makes the dream work. We were asked rec Team work makes the dream work. 
We were asked recently whether we “make” our kids work on the farm. The answer is of course not. Having said that, all three love to help out whenever they can. They all work hard because they want to; because they take pride in working hard and contributing in a meaningful way to our family life; because they love living on our farm and don’t remember life before we moved here. Whether it be planting trees or doing sheep work or feeding animals, they all want to be involved. As a parent, nothing is better than watching them grow in skill and confidence as they work along side you. We’re so glad that we get to spend time with our three, working together.
We’ve had an unexpected addition to the family ☘️🐑. She is a lot easier to look after than the other family members but she does try to escape her yard and head butt people. Poddy lambs are super cute but they tend to think they are a human. Clover the lamb is sure that Meg is her mum. Can’t think why… 🤔🤣
The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: toge The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: together, cooking damper around the remains of the bonfire.
It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got through shearing without a hitch (thankfully 🙏) but we’ve had a run of the flu followed by Covid run through the family since then. The kids and I have tested positive (this is my second time getting it 🦠) though so far C has managed to avoid it. There has been a lot of lying on the couch feeling pretty ordinary. Han had to reschedule her driving test for a 4th time due to Covid, which is disappointing for her because she wants her freedom and for us because it would be so much more convenient if she could drive herself places. Just to add in to the mix, our hot water system has chosen now as a good time to die so we’re on cold showers until we’re all out of iso. This is not meant to be a whinging post but sometimes life just sucks a bit and it’s good to be real. Fortunately, the sight of the fire going with a stack of wood next to it cheers us up. Things will improve soon. Onwards we go…

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City girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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