Before we could put any windows in, however, we had to buy the windows. Almost as soon as we moved back into the house, Mum and Dad were patrolling the "Reviva Centre" (the recycling centre at the tip) and the local liquidators for timber windows and doors. Of course, mostly the cheaper the purchases came, the more work they needed - except for the big double-hung diamond pane window that we paid Way Too Much for (even after serious haggling). We paid the most for this window, and we worked the hardest on it. It was supposedly reconditioned, but we soon knew better.


A succession of people spent hours over it, beginning with a good friend of ours, Margaret. In fact, this window will probably be the most memorable for this family. Not only did we spend hours taking it apart, putting it back together, stripping and painting it -



we also installed it twice! It first went in on the front of the house, in the wall that would close in the veranda (an afternoon's work involving more friends of ours, the vanDort family):



The veranda now being walled in (with a frame and black plastic) we moved our dining table in and began to eat our meals there. But after looking through the diamond paned window every meal for a few weeks, we came to the conclusion that it didn't do justice to the view. Our outlook was hindered, not enhanced. Finally, two months later, we re-installed it exactly opposite it's first position, on the back of the house.



Though Margaret began work on this notorious window on the same day we installed the first window, May 25th, it did not find it's final position till nearly three months later, on August 9th.


Other windows were reconditioned, though most not nearly as drastically as the diamond paned.



And using a set of nine sashes that we'd stored for some years, Dad also built five windows. These added a certain regularity to the outside appearance of the house. These are two of the first, in what we were originally intending to be the kitchen:



Inevitably, it usually took us much longer to prepare the windows than to put them in. But we appreciate the time we spent now.

The installation of windows was our first step in the house renovation. The wonder of light was revealed to us over and over again, as each window went in. The relief we felt, as we witnessed the transformation of each room, was almost physical.


Our first window was installed on May 25th.


I guess there are advantages to a complete lack of cladding. At least you can see what you're doing.
This was the North-Eastern wall of the house. Inside was the pink bedroom.

The pink bedroom initially only had only one source of light (along with almost every other room in the house), so once this window and the following french doors went in, the difference to the feel of the room was amazing. All of a sudden it was a reasonably pleasant place to be!
(The french doors that were to go in next can be seen leaning against the wall along the right hand side of the above photo.) Notice the corrugated plastic - complete with lichen - covering the left hand window. This plastic was screwed down over all our window openings, in replacement of the windows Dad took out while removing the asbestos. The same as the plastic used in our shower, it once roofed an area between the shed and the house, and had been dismantled very shortly after our arrival. Our unusual windows caused various (and sometimes unexpected) reactions from our visitors...

The house as it now exists - nearly three years later. The final room was moved about two years after we first looked at the house. The side deck (and ramp) was the last living area to be constructed. It was built over the last two days of 2008, and was finished just 40 minutes before the time we were expecting guests to arrive for our New Years Eve open house. (Well, the railings weren't up, but the deck itself was up in time. What more can you want?!)

As can be seen, the Kitchen has changed sides of the house, and the bathroom also. The verandah has been enclosed and, along with the area where the bathroom used to be, has become the dining room. The old entryway became the ensuite-to-be, while the new entryway now comes into the other side of the lounge area. The hall has been carved out of the original living space, creating privacy for the two bedrooms and bathroom, while also delineating a passage for traffic to flow around the outside of the lounge room. The side entrance has switched sides with the kitchen. More on each change as we come to it...


The upstairs area. This is used as a bedroom by me and one of my sisters. (My profile picture, on this blog, is of me in the process of building the bookshelves at the far end of this loft.) The narrow section of diagonal lines on the right side of the image image below is bookshelves. The diagonal lines along the bottom represent our cupboard space, set back into the roof space over the lounge room ceiling. The large storage space to the left of the stairs is the main storage space for the family (all nine of us), and is set into the roof space over the bedroom below.

This upstairs area was initially developed as a children's play area or storage room. Located in the very peak of a shallow pitched roof, I can only just stand up straight under the ridge pole. I'm approximately 5'4". At each end of the floor space the ceiling is about 3 to 3 1/2' off the floor. It was expected that this rather uncomfortable lack of standing room would put us off sleeping up there, but as we mainly spend our time up there either sitting or lying down, it hasn't affected us much. I personally love it. The romance of the low, pitched ceilings, the winding staircase, the diamond pane windows and the amazing view all combine to make it a much treasured bedroom. Besides, after all the effort I put into making it what it is, I could hardly help but love it, even if it were a disaster! But more on this once I get up to it...

Perhaps some people know that we're not far off finishing this house renovation, and have been working very hard over Christmas to finish by Jan 1st 2009. We didn't quite make our self-imposed deadline, but it is amazing just how much we managed to get done. Especially considering all the other stuff we managed to squeeze into November/December.

Now we're into the new year I hope to be able to speed up this record of our journey. I hope you'll bear with me a little longer.

This is a drawing of the house layout as it was when we bought the property:



I've finally had time to draw up, scan, adjust, resize and upload it! Sorry about the long wait you've all had to endure. Hopefully I'll have a little more time to keep the posts coming.

Next up, the house as it is now - for comparison and an idea of where we're heading.

Before documenting the changes we made to the house, here is a diagram of the property.

The property has an odd shape, with a right-of-way cutting off one corner.

On the image above north-south runs roughly parallel with the page edge, with north at the top of the page. (This is a confusing way of looking at the property for me, as I usually visualise the property from the opposite direction - up the hill toward the front of the house, from the main road.)

The wide rectangle intruding into the bottom left corner of the property is a lane; a right-of-way carries on over our strip of property into the next (and last) property. You might be able to see a faint grey line cutting across from where the lane intersects the property's left boundary line to the right boundary? That was the fence line when we bought the property. We had to have someone survey the property so that we knew where our real boundaries were.

The faint lines between the house and shed mark a roofed area that protected the area between the kitchen and laundry doors. This was roofed in corrugated plastic - soon to be recycled into windows and showers. That connecting roof was one of the first things to be dismantled. During the asbestos removal it disappeared.

Approximately where the words 'Railway Avenue' are, at the top of the page, the railway runs parallel to the road. Beyond that is another road, and then the town sports oval and parkland. The view is very pretty.

When we first moved in, the property was basically an undulating slope, all the way from the front gate to the back lane - never really interrupted or levelling out. After the lane the ground level rose about two feet, and sloped the remaining distance to the far corner. The only exception was between the right-of-way and the house: it looked as though someone in the past had banked up and levelled out the earth in anticipation of installing a pool or something. (We began digging our trench along the base of the bank just behind the south-east corner of the house.)

This is as the property is now:Some things, such as the big tree overlapping the house and the row of trees down the left boundary, were on the property when we arrived. Pretty well any curved lines are features that have been added by us.

The curved line that runs from half way down the right (eastern) boundary, behind the house, through the inner corner of the property and onto the lane, is a rock wall. This was almost completely built by Dad. (A couple of my sisters gave a hand once or twice; I moved all of about two stones!)
Between this wall and the back of the house is a path, the first level on the property. Trot up the stairs and you're on the next level. This level slopes away once it reaches the end of the rock wall, off the property in the lane area. At the back of this level the ground level abruptly slopes up to the right-of-way. We've angled a path gently across the fall of the slope, between a garden and a hedge. This path leads to another set of steps, and takes you up onto the right-of-way. Cross the right-of-way and you are faced with a bank of tall grass. Behind that grass is the vegetable garden, conveniently occupying the odd area at the top of the block. The top level. To reach it one can walk straight ahead up the railway sleeper embedded in the bank, or struggle up through any area of the grass.

We've built a little music room on the western side of the garage (shed). This is tiny, so as to avoid having to go through the expensive and extended rigmarole of gaining permission from local council. However it is fully insulated and has it's own little pot-belly stove. More about that when I get up to it.

Fence lines now follow our boundary lines. A combination of picket and paling fencing can be observed, and will be on this blog - just as soon as I get up to them!

As can be seen, the property has changed quite a lot since we bought it. Much of the landscaping happened in the first twelve months of our living here; we had little money, few materials but a will to work and change what we could. Unable to do much to the house, we concentrated on the landscaping. We also had (and still have) an avid gardener, who planted behind every move we made - even if she had to transplant later! The plants have transformed the property as much as the raw landscaping by adding a spacial/visual dimension that nothing else could provide. This aspect, however, can only be adequately shown in pictures. You'll just have to be patient!

On May 19th, 2006 our several tons of basalt rock were delivered from a site not 40km away.


Rock walls, here we come.


Our trench was coming into use finally.


This was Dad's early morning exercise for some time to come. (We would wake to the chink of the crowbar against stone.) Once begun, the demand for rock walls seemed inexhaustible, and then after the walls came the pillars...

The removal of asbestos had severe ramifications on the bathroom. Our bathroom had never been at all appealing, but it in several senses it took a turn for the worse. Our only bathroom window disappeared along with both the outside cladding and the inside (asbestos) fibro. All of a sudden there was no longer any natural light - except that which shone through the holes in the 'Bradford Thermofoil'.



In the process of taking out the asbestos Dad had also ripped out the bath and mouldy vanity cabinet. The bathroom was on a concrete slab, along with the veranda (extending on other side of sink and shower head wall) so we were still able to use the shower.
All that stood between us and the elements while in the shower was that blue aluminum foil sisalation. During winter showers tended to be especially swift. Not the most relaxation-inducing mode of ablution, I can assure you, especially when it is understood that the sisalation was all that stood between us and the main road.
As it is inconvenient to have water going everywhere, we soon took corrugated plastic, salvaged from off the roofed area between the house and garage, and enclosed our shower area. The choice of material was very organic, despite being plastic, as the lichen stubbornly remained in situ - in defiance of a hasty scrub brush. (This corrugated plastic was also what Dad used to close over window openings, after taking windows out during the asbestos clean up.)


We also cut a hole in the sisalation for some natural light. It made a huge difference during the day.




The bathroom, as can be seen, drastically changed. (Compare these pictures to the original photos in Preview on Camera.) Aesthetically and psychologically it changed for the worst, but hygienically - despite appearances! - it was generally an improvement. The room could become dirty (the wind somehow blew even pine needles in), but it certainly wasn't mouldy. (Our friendly lichen doesn't count!) The air circulation was excellent.