Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Feb 03, 2011 6:22 pm We have been renting for the last couple of years having moved back 'home' (close to our parents) following the birth of our first child. I found this little old house and mentioned it to DH and took him for a drive past it. He wasn't interested. After about 6 months it was still on the market so I decided to go have a look at it without him. I took mum instead who is a 'glass-half-full' sort of person. Behind the closed-in fibro and lattice verandah, stripy awnings and ugly colorbond fence was a very old, solid double brick house. Convinced it had potential, I took DH for a look. Some of my enthusiasm must of rubbed off and after some negotiations, we settled at the start of Dec last year. Let the fun begin! I think the house was built around 1900. I'm don't know how you go about finding out for sure. I called council but they said they didn't have those details. In our paperwork with the contracts, we found that some renovations were done in the 20's. We think this is when they must of added the inside bathroom at the end of the hall. The house needs a new ceiling. There was old wall paper on the walls that are coming off. We're going to update the kitchen and bathroom, take up the carpets and have the floor boards polished and put in some robes in the 2nd and 3rd bedroom. In the main bedroom is an old robe and a fireplace which has been blocked off. I'd like to remove that to make more room but I'm not sure how much work is needed. The house needs a new roof and we are going to replace the colorbond fence along the front with a picket fence. Re: Little old country house renovation 3Feb 03, 2011 6:31 pm sounds great. where are you? which state. maybe you might find an old newspaper with a date on when you pull the place apart. any photos? good luck Re: Little old country house renovation 4Feb 03, 2011 8:06 pm This is a thread I know I'm going to enjoy following! We've renovated a 1959 weatherboard house in Sale, Victoria and will be renovating a Victorian terrace we've bought in Newcastle (that's not until we move at the end of the year. Make sure you keep us all updated buildcraig...can't wait to see your progress! Re: Little old country house renovation 5Feb 03, 2011 8:49 pm Thanks all - I just hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew! DS was born just before Christmas so there's not alot I can do at the moment than organise tradies (and DH). Kiwi - We are in small country town in Central West NSW. Mum and dad are about 20min out of town which was the main reason for moving back her 2 and a half years ago when DD was born.
Struggling here to add photos. Do you put them where it says 'Upload attachment'? I've tried twice - first it said that the file was too big, so I changed them, then its telling me 'Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached'??? Any help would be great. Re: Little old country house renovation 6Feb 03, 2011 8:54 pm I will enjoy following your reno,good luck Re: Little old country house renovation 7Feb 03, 2011 9:05 pm To add photo's I upload them to photobucket (very easy to get a free account if you dont have one) then use the bottom code to paste them here. I can't wait to see your pics. Little old country house renovation 8Feb 03, 2011 9:06 pm To upload photos you need a hosting site like flickr / photobucket. Once you upload them there copy and paste the IMG code - voila, photos appear. LOL Snap Luvlee Some things are worth waiting for. Re: Little old country house renovation 9Feb 03, 2011 9:40 pm [img]<a%20href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59115633@N06/5413134098/"%20title="front%20by%20craigm79,%20on%20Flickr"><img%20src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/5413134098_6953b22141.jpg"%20width="500"%20height="375"%20alt="front"%20/></a>[/img] hmm... I'll try again in the morning. Re: Little old country house renovation 10Feb 04, 2011 6:31 am Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here you go I just pulled out the .jpg I could see in what you had posted Place looks great - can't wait to see what you do! Bel Still not in. Don't ask!? Re: Little old country house renovation 12Feb 04, 2011 9:03 am Cheers, thanks bel. Took a while but think I've got it worked out. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ front steps Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Through front door to hall. The master bedroom and lounge are to the right and there is the second bed, dining room and kitchen to the left. You can see the bathroom at the end of the hall. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Master bedroom - has 2 sets of french doors - leading to the front verandah and side enclosed verandah. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Robes in master bed with closed in fireplace in middle. I want that removed to make more space for cupboards - not sure if you can. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bed 2 - DH has taken the cornice off. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ lounge - french doors lead to side enclosed verandah. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Kitchen with some cupboards removed. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Fireplace in kitchen - the had been using it as a pantry. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bathroom Re: Little old country house renovation 13Feb 04, 2011 9:20 am wow....BIG job, but will be amazing when you finish. LOVE the gold in the bathroom, hope you are keeping it!! the ceilings are huge, nice and cool in summer. best of luck....and I am sure you guys will have an amazing journey doing it (you will hate each other, but that is all part of the fun!) Re: Little old country house renovation 14Feb 04, 2011 6:38 pm The builders have started putting the new roof on. Its 41 degrees here at the moment so they only work in the morning then knock off. The colour is woodland grey. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Thanks for the comments Kiwi - it is a cool house with the double brick and high ceilings. Hmmm... we will probably upgrade that lovely gold screen, but you are most welcome to it! Re: Little old country house renovation 15Feb 04, 2011 9:27 pm oh wow - I'm doing a reno on a 1870'ish house, we did the whole history on our house (see link below), from first owner (who was the local cop) right thru all 7 owners, 5 who died whilst owing it, anyways, hope you can do the same for your house. It looks amazing! Can't wait to see what you do with it! A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Little old country house renovation 16Feb 05, 2011 6:46 am thanks, let me give you some money for it....ummm, let me see, 87 cents be ok? Re: Little old country house renovation 17Feb 08, 2011 10:43 pm buildcraig We have been renting for the last couple of years having moved back 'home' (close to our parents) following the birth of our first child. I found this little old house and mentioned it to DH and took him for a drive past it. He wasn't interested. After about 6 months it was still on the market so I decided to go have a look at it without him. I took mum instead who is a 'glass-half-full' sort of person. Behind the closed-in fibro and lattice verandah, stripy awnings and ugly colorbond fence was a very old, solid double brick house. Convinced it had potential, I took DH for a look. Some of my enthusiasm must of rubbed off and after some negotiations, we settled at the start of Dec last year. Let the fun begin! I think the house was built around 1900. I'm don't know how you go about finding out for sure. I called council but they said they didn't have those details. In our paperwork with the contracts, we found that some renovations were done in the 20's. We think this is when they must of added the inside bathroom at the end of the hall. The house needs a new ceiling. There was old wall paper on the walls that are coming off. We're going to update the kitchen and bathroom, take up the carpets and have the floor boards polished and put in some robes in the 2nd and 3rd bedroom. In the main bedroom is an old robe and a fireplace which has been blocked off. I'd like to remove that to make more room but I'm not sure how much work is needed. The house needs a new roof and we are going to replace the colorbond fence along the front with a picket fence. I'll be watching this with great interest Be good if there was a forum just for these 'old gems' Exterior Wall colour - Hog bristle? 18Feb 13, 2011 10:50 am Annietom - I'd love to do a history on our house too - where did you start getting all your info? Love both your blogs by the way! SOLD Kiwi I agree Trish about the forum just for old gems! I got a couple of sample pots yesterday for the exterior - Dulux Clotted Cream and Hog bristle. Let me know what you think. I'll be doing the trim in white. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Clotted cream on the left, Hog bristle on the right. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Almost finished the new roof. They still have to do the back and the gutters. Got more pics I'll put them up once I've fed the baby. Re: Exterior Wall colour - Hog bristle? 19Feb 13, 2011 11:51 am [quote="buildcraig"]Annietom - I'd love to do a history on our house too - where did you start getting all your info? Love both your blogs by the way! SOLD Kiwi I agree Trish about the forum just for old gems! I got a couple of sample pots yesterday for the exterior - Dulux Clotted Cream and Hog bristle. Let me know what you think. I'll be doing the trim in white. I think I like the clotted cream but others no doubt will be better at colour selection Your local historical society may have information on your house, there could be subdivision info as well - etc Ours did. We were lucky that many years ago we were visited by an old lady that used to visit her aunty (original owner) and had a photo which she sent us Interesting there is a similar height difference between my husband and myself! We increased the size of the house in the early 80s Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Little old country house renovation 20Feb 13, 2011 2:12 pm That's fantastic Trish! I love the old photo, what a beautiful old home. I'd love to see what you've done to it. I'm in the process of drawing up a rough sketch of the house plan and what we have done (I've got both chn asleep so don't want to risk waking them by getting the scanner out of the spare room) but here are some more pics. We (meaning the builders and DH) have removed the little bathroom that was at the end of the hall and taken down the walls that seperated the kitchen, bathroom and lounge so it will be one big open area. The bathroom was on a concrete slab so it is bare dirt at the moment. When the builders took the roof off the southern side, they found all the batons were rotted so had to replace them - that means we'll have to have the enclosed verandah (which we have know decided to keep as a playroom for the kids) relined. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The backyard - that's the garage and workshops down the back. The big cedar? tree behind the garage is actually growing into the side of the garage and the roots have pushed up through the floor. It will need to be removed (I'm sure this will be expensive - its a huge tree) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The back of the house - This will be a great 'before' shot - crikey it looks rough! To the right of the back door is the the door that leads to the laundry/shower/toilet - this will become the bathroom. We will have a laundry put on to the left - we'll put a second shower and toilet in there aswell. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Standing in the kitchen looking across the open area we made by knocking walls out. The bathroom was where the hole in the floor is (the dining table will go there) The loungeroom is across the other side. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The enclosed verandah. The two sets of french doors lead to the bedroom and the loungeroom. This will be a playroom for the kids. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Standing where the bathroom used to be looking into the kitchen. You can see the newly rendered wall on the right where the fireplace used to be. The door leads out the back. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The back verandah - this is where the new laundry is going. The old tank will be removed and the gas bottles are to be relocated around to the side of the house. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ My old bricks - I want to use these as pavers for the front path - I'll have to see how they clean up. Hi all Am new to this forum. I want to get some ideas/info about how to manage an 80 year old factory restoration to convert to a residence. The factory floor is concrete… 0 6330 8 6119 Old Home Restoration / Renovation Hi, just discovered all these junks left behind under the floor. Could any of these be asbestos? Best to leave as it is or clean up? Thank you for your thoughts 0 8049 |