Tag Archives: Renovating

The red on my spreadsheet- what our renovation taught me about renovation budgets

 

It’s a year since practical completion of the renovation of our beach house. It’s just the garden to go now.

To use a much-overused term, it was quite a journey. What started as musing about ways to sort out our dreaded spiral staircase over a steak in the Penola is now the finished article.

Our architect’s plans were put through the mill by my favourite person and me. While costs were relevant, they were not the driving factor through the design phase. The focus was on getting rid of the spiral staircase and coming up with a design that compensated for the loss of space that would result. However, it didn’t stop there! We quickly moved on to a new kitchen, relocation of the laundry, necessary because of the stairs, an update of the mezzanine to give us more space and extra decking. And I wonder why the costs blew out!

The mezzanine

It was about two years from when we first met our architect until the builder started on our renovation. We waxed and waned over her design, but as each decision was made we very much followed her lead. Her attention to detail in putting my favourite person’s ideas into place served us well. Our builder commented more than once that there was so much detail in her plans. Continue reading →

Renovating

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View from back door

Just over 2 years ago sitting in a pub in Penola, in the Coonawarra wine region of South Australia, I mused with my favourite persona about sorting out the spiral staircase in our beach house.

Our spiral staircase has been the bane of our regular visits. All of us have fallen off the last step, with my mother needing stitches from her fall. My youngest daughter said all of her friends had stories about their falls; presumably after a couple of drinks. It has also been a safety hazard for our young grandchildren.

So we started planning.

Continue reading →