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!
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| The girls “assisting” us paint the living room. |
What are your “horror” renovation stories? How long has it taken you to renovate a house?
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!
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!