The bane of my existence!

When we first viewed the house at open inspection, it appeared that the real estate agent had barely set foot beyond the front door. If he had, we are sure he would have done something about the state that the bathroom was in. It looked (and smelt) as though they had been on a drinking bender the night before - i won't sicken you by going in to the details. I suppose you would also ask the question - how could you purchase the house after that?! Yeah, I know, but we saw potential - and got it for a bargain price!

Before we were to move in to the house, we had one week to do what we could. I had wanted to gut the bathroom straight away, but alas, we needed somewhere to sleep really, so this task was put aside, and four years on, continues to be the one thing I absolutley hate about this house!

Firstly, this space was obviously a very small bathroom, and a laundry that was accessed from the outside. They have closed off the doorway, and opened up the room to make it in to a larger bathroom/laundry. In doing this though, they have left much of the renovation unfinished.

There are exposed studs and beams, with nails poking out. A very very large hot water system on bare concrete, with part of the original walls - as you will notice the very retro 70's wallpaper. They have tiled up the walls but finished short of the ceiling. The black paint is directly on to fibro sheeting, not gyprock/plasterboard walls, and there is gaps between the cornicing and the fibro, where it appears that have pulled out the original plasterboard walling. There are holes that we have patched up which allowed viewing directly in to the ceiling. It also doubled as a gateway for our rodent friends who live in the ceiling. Yes, that's right, I have often caught mice running in and out of the bathroom at night!

The majority of the bathroom is taken up by this enormous corner spa. No - it is not a luxury. It doesn't work, its a mould trap, and it is impossible to bath the children in because it is so deep. Oh, how I miss my little bathroom in our old apartment! It was so neat, tidy and clean.

The Bedrooms

Ooh, its been a little while since i hopped on my home blog. I have got the reno bug though, and have been out and bought some new mags to start making a scrap book of what we want to do with the house. Whether we are lucky enough to be chosen for this show or not, we still need to do some major renovations, and really don't have much time to mess around - with Tae getting bigger every day - yes, i know, he is still teeny tiny tae at just over 4kg for 4months of age, but we know how fast time flies and soon enough he will be too big for the cradle.


So, in the first pic above, you will see our room. The bedrooms were the first things we did when we moved in to the house. They were such a state, we ripped up the carpets and scrubbed and scrubbed away at the floors and wall. The previous owners were obviously heavy smokers, and there was literally a profile of where they had sat up against the wall in bed, the outlining on the wall in smoke soot - it was disgusting. So after a thorough cleaning, we painted, laid new carpet and had built in robes installed - plug for Betta Wardrobes!



Its pretty cramped though, so as you can see, we have the baby's cradle against the wall, and for extra storage, a chest of drawers, plus another small set of drawers on top.


Mali's room is just tiny. We have said though, if worst comes to worst, we can remove the change table and rocking chair and will fit another small bed or cot in by the window - definately not ideal though. We look forward to eventually moving Mali in to our room, which will be great, as we have the tv on the wall, and its hooked up to a dvd, so our main tv is not over run by kids movies all the time. It will be a good sized room for keeping some of her play stuff too. Will probably move the rocking chair in there - i just love it for cuddling and reading books on - and that will make a bit more space in Tae's room.

The Living Space

As stated in the first post, when we first moved in to the house in 2004 we decided to open up the third bedroom to create a bigger kitchen/living/dining space. We were very thankful to receive some funding last year from my grandfather, and over the last twelve months, with the help of our family, we have put in a new kitchen.

We now have a more open plan living space, though this is still on the small side, as this space houses the lounge, dining table, our home office and the kid's play space. It is pretty squashy and we could really do with more space, not only having two kids, but also with the view to whatever therapy Taelan may need.

The Illegal Garage

When we first bought the house, we were informed that the Garage was illegal, in that it had not been built to council's regulation or approval. We have since obtained house plans, and they were approved to build a garage/carport, but it was meant to be built off the boundary 900mm.

The way they have built it, with the door way, does not give sufficient room for a car to be driven in, so it is basically used as a storage space, a real waste. We would love to close this space in, and use it as a living room. We would make it a proper entrance, and replace the garage door with glass sliding or bi-fold doors. And instead, would build a car port out front to the right of the house (where the grass is).

You can see the original front door to the house, we have put some stainless steel railings up there stairs, but really, it is pretty scrappy looking. Whenever we have visitors over, I feel embarassed, and apologise for the state of the entrance, excusing myself that we are renovating (for the last four years). There is also a gutter hole right across the drive in front of the entrance door. We have attempted to find a gutter grill to place over the gap, but this must be an abnormal size, as we cant find any to fit. When it rains heavily, this gutter and drain blocks up and leaves a big puddle of water and leaves, right at the front door!

The front of house

Our house is a single storey fibro house, built up on piers. It is deceiving from the front, as it has a brick facade.

Our Family

Our little family consists of Nathan, Deni, Amalia and baby Taelan (oh, must not forget Jazmin our Staffy). We live in the Sutherland Shire, Sydney and love our lifestyle. We are hard working, take pride in our home, and love to share our spare time with family and friends. Our precious little bub Tae is 14weeks old and has recently been diagnosed with a rare genetic condition called Cornelia de Lange Syndrome. The implications for his physical and intellectual development are varied, and we don't know what the future holds, but we are doing everything possible to help him reach his highest potential, and we continue to just get on with things, enjoying life, family and trying to enjoy our home.

Our little house is very small. It was originally 3 bedrooms, but there was not much living space and we could not fit in our lounge and dining table. We decided at the time (back in 2004) to convert the bedroom that shared a wall with the living area, in to a kitchen, and opened up that joining wall. Unfortunately, we are now four of us, living out of two bedrooms (baby Tae is in a cradle in our room). Hindsight is a great thing!

When we first bought the house it was in a nightmare state. We only had one week to make it liveable, and so basically gutted it. We firstly cleaned up the two bedrooms, with new paint, carpet and built in wardrobes, and then opened up the kitchen space. For many years we lived on bare floorboards and with a makeshift kitchen. Just this year, we have finally, with the help of our family, installed a new kitchen.

I had always said that the first thing we would do is put in a new bathroom, but here we are, still with the original. It is the bane of my existence! In the photos you will see the exposed beams/stud walls and nails, original 1960's wallpaper, holes in the wall, giant hot water system, and the large unfriendly spa - no, it is not romantic, it doesn't work, and is extremely difficult to bath the kids in, as such, we bath the baby in the kitchen sink.

We first found about the new show Homerun on Channel 9, they were advertising for contestants to apply to be on the show. Nathan and I had joked about how we should apply with our neighbours Shayne and Steve, but just let it go. Mum and my sister Loren, however, were quite persistent, and encouraged us to apply - it would really be a fantastic saviour and we are in desperate need to a renovation!

So we approached Steve and Shayne - a week out from the arrival of their third bub - and they too were keen to jump on board. Amongst getting ready for their new addition, and between our little house of chaos with a two and a half year old and baby of three months - we snapped have photos and filled out application forms.



So, today is the final day for applications to be sent in, and I am still needing to type up the application forms and email everything through. Do we dare to dream that we could be on TV and have such fantastic assistance to renovate our house??