Day 3

We were able to fill the trenches yesterday and that is all that will happen now until Monday.  Not very exciting and a bit of a let down but hopefully Monday will bring the sort of action I am hoping for.  In the meantime I am having sleepless nights over the work surface for the kitchen.  I really want engineered stone, Caesar Stone or Hanstone, but everything is so over budget (really hate that word) that we may have to reconsider doing the kitchen at this point.  We are waiting for one final quote and will have to decide one way or the other on Monday.

Day 2

The local building inspector came around to check the trenches before the foundations were thrown.  He was happy with what he saw and we can move forward.  There is however the small problem of all the water in the trenches which was from the heavy rain over the weekend.  The sun is shining so the builder has bucketed the majority of the water out and hopefully the rest will dry up and we can continue with the foundations.  A bit dissappointing to see nothing happening but hopefully the sun will continue to shine and we will see some bricks going up soon.

In the meantime we need to make some decisions about our kitchen. 

Day 1 (and 2)

Day 1 should have happened yesterday but due to the rain over the weekend and on Monday morning it was delayed until today.  The builder dropped his team early this morning and explained that they would be marking out and digging the trenches for the foundation of the undercover living area today (braai room if you prefer).  I have to tell you that I have never been so excited to see my backyard in such a mess.  It took 4 guys about 3,5 hours to strip our existing patio and dig the trenches.  Tomorrow the local building inspector will come and check that they have been correctly marked and that they have been dug to the correct depth before any further work is done.

This is the view from our back yard at the moment looking into our property.  We are going to be removing all those doors and windows and replacing them with other doors and windows.  Silly?  Well , the idea is that once we finish the second phase of the renovation all the rooms surrounding this undercover area will open into it.  We also want to open it up as much as we can and keep as much light coming into the property as possible.  The 2,4m sliding door in the living room will be replaced with a 3m one. We are still trying to decide on the configuration of this sliding door.  I would love stacking doors but I got a quote this morning and they are at least 4 times the cost of a sliding door.  A girl can dream!  It is my philosophy that you should always try and get exactly what you want first and then start compromising.  I will let you know how that works out for me by the time we are finished with this.  The small window in the corner is being replaced by a small sliding door.  This room will eventually become a family room.  It is currently our study.  The other window is being closed in and a much smaller window is going in.  This will be a little weird for us as that is currently our bedroom window.  Part of this bedroom will become a very small study so we decided to make these changes now to prevent any work having to be done later in this renovated space. Right now, I need to do a little more homework with regards to the built in braai (barbecue).  More compromising ...  My first choice was a Jetmaster 1200 but once again, it is not in our budget.  At the moment it looks like we will be opting for a Megamaster 1200 Deluxe. 

Let the Renovation begin ...

I am starting this blog to keep a record of our home renovations.  Since we have never embarked on something like this before we have no idea of what to expect or if we are making the right decisions.  What I have learned so far is that there are no universal "right decisions" and sometimes you just have to go with it and do what works best for your family.

At the beginning of this year we approached an architect with grand visions in mind.  It did not take long for me to understand that our very ordinary suburban home was not ever going to meet the vision in my head but we could certainly improve the space and make some much needed changes.  

The idea is to convert our small 3 bedroomed home into a 4 bedroomed home.  Our plans now boast 4 bedrooms as well as a tiny (I mean tiny) study and a undercover entertainment area.  Since we are not big on gardening we are happy to be using up most of our backyard to create our undercover living area.  This was in fact the main focus of our renovation initially. 

So, after getting some building quotations we realised that we would have to do this in 2 stages.  Firstly, due to the cost and secondly due to the fact that we will be living in our home during the renovation.  We also decided that we needed to update our exsisting living area.  We bought our house 9 years ago and the choice of finishings at the time were limited and very basic.  Although our home is a freestanding property it is situated in a secure housing estate and as such there are fairly strict rules about what you are permitted to do to your property.  I love and hate this at the same time.  We did consider moving rather than renovating but property in our estate is highly sought after and I love the security of the environment.  Most of the ouses have been built in closes.  There are 2 parks in the estate and we are directly opposite the one which gives the kids the freedom to "play in the street".

So, for now, we think this is the perfect place for us to be.  The builder will be arriving on Monday morning and renovation will begin ...  Wish us luck!