Who Needs Walls?

Just to show you more wall demolition (and it's not over!), this made a HUGE difference to the space and light.  Alongside the sitting room (not shown here), we are breaking through a few more walls to make a larger kitchen/dining space from the old kitchen, small hallway and old bathroom.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a good selection of 'before' pictures.  This hallway used to lead from the kitchen to a storage closet (1st on the right), bathroom (2nd on the right) and bedroom (straight ahead): 

If you stand on the left, where the yellow/peach walls meet, that's about where the previous picture was taken. 

A corner in the old kitchen (don't you love the curtains!) ...

And now with the kitchen units and wall gone!

And from the other perspective, looking from the old bedroom ...

The kitchen will stay where it is, so we're in the process of deciding on that.  And the dining area will be going in and abouts where the bath is.  Though space looks much bigger, it's a bit narrow, so no kitchen island for us :(

Wrecking Ball

Well, maybe not a wrecking ball but definitely 2 men with equipment to knock down internal walls started in at the house.  I have no idea what they used as I didn't see them in action but one internal wall (a few more to go!) is now gone.

This is work being done in the sitting/living room area where an old bedroom, small hallway, and small sitting room are being turned into our main living space.  One of the walls was quite thick but based on it's placement, wasn't thought to be a load bearing wall.  Thankfully it wasn't BUT once they started hacking into it, an old chimney was uncovered so there was a lot more work to taking that wall out than originally expected.  Here are a few pics of the before and after ...

This is the entry hallway that leads to an external door.  The old bedroom is on the left and the small sitting room is on the right ...

And TA DA!  No more hallway!

Here, I'm standing in the middle of the hallway, looking into the old sitting room (check out the fireplace surround!).

And now I'm standing at the far end of the room, in what was once the old bedroom.  You can see where the hallway used to be!

Here I'm in the corner of the small bedroom (see how that right wall sticks out ... that's the hidden chimney/fireplace):

Same corner!

And last pic, looking from the other end of the room:

I meant to try to get some more external house pictures today but surprise surprise it was cold and rainy so I'll leave that for another day.  Next steps, more walls will be coming down.  Stay tuned!

And Now We Begin

So finally after months (and I'm talking about MONTHS) of dealing with Mr. Banker and a faceless group of Mr & Mrs. Underwriters, we have finally gotten the keys to the house.  Woohoo!
This has been a long and very frustrating PROCESS which has taken a lot of wind out of our sails but now we can get excited about the house again as work has begun!  And I don't want to bore anyone with tedious details.  If you really want to hear about the ridiculous requests we had to deal with, give me a shout, I can go on for ages.  But moving on ....

Now we weren't really looking to move ... we're very happy in our comfy 4-bed semi-detached home in a nice and quiet estate (read: 'subdivision') in town.  But Stephen's one of those guys who is constantly looking at websites for auto and house sales.  Just out of curiosity.  I think it's an addiction.

And one day last summer he went for a cycle around the roads near his home place (read: 'the place he grew up') and saw a house for sale.  We looked at the listing on-line and I thought he was crazy.  The pictures just did nothing for it.  But he convinced me to take a look and off we went see the house with the auctioneer (read: 'realtor').  And I was convinced.  But it does need work.  A significant amount of it.

And the rest is history (it really is history as it is now nearly 10 months later and we have only just gotten the keys and started the renovations).  Oh right ... I said I was moving on ...  As you can see, I have a hard time letting go ...

I'll go tomorrow and try to get some decent pics of the outside to explain what's going on with it.  But in the meantime here's a pic of the view ... aren't you getting excited too?!

1st Entry

This is a test and I'm trying to get all the editing sorted.
I am wondering why this is not coming naturally.
I feel like a technological dinosaur.

I'll start on about the house another day!