Hi lovelies,
Sorry it’s been a while between posts. The last few weeks have been really tough – I am only just managing to keep my head above water. But the good news is, I have come to one giant conclusion this month:
Newborns and renovations do not mix!!
This may seem like an obvious statement. However, I am often in the habit of biting off more than I can chew, and this my friends, is one of those times. I actually want to write an ENTIRE blog post about this, so I will refrain from pouring my thoughts (and tears) into this post and save them for another time.
Because this post is all about… building the main bathroom!
When we first sat down with our architect over a year ago, I had a few non-negotiables when it came to planning our main bathroom.
- A bath. I knew we wanted to have children, so a bath was a must have item. I also think it is a no brainer in terms of re-sale. Balmain is a suburb full of young families, so the majority of future buyers will be wanting the same thing.
- A separate laundry. When it comes to small houses like terraces and semi’s, many people opt for a large main bathroom at the expense of a full laundry. They usually have a hideaway laundry in a cupboard. I wanted a full laundry to hide dirty clothes and to store things like school bags, the vacuum cleaner and craft stuff! I’ve had a laundry in a cupboard before, and I hated having to schedule my washing around visitors.
- Big french window with shutters. Our bathroom has to face the wall of the next door neighbour’s house. Not a great view and not a lot of light. But instead of installing a tiny window to hide the ugly wall, I wanted to make the window the pretty feature – rather than the view.
We planned to put the main bathroom where the old kitchen used to be. With long, skinny houses like ours, it is best to put the bathroom and laundry in the centre of the house, so the back of the house can be used for an open-living area that flows through to the backyard.
The image below is what the old floor plan used to look like. See where the kitchen is? That’s where the main bathroom and laundry will go.
The image below is what the new floor plan looks like. The old kitchen was about 3m x 3m which gave us enough space to divide it into a separate bathroom and laundry.
This is a photo of what the old kitchen looked like after Matt and I ripped it out with our bare hands! No. Joke. A pretty big space! Notice there is only one window…
… the builder had to brick up this window and knock out two new windows – one for the bathroom, one for the laundry.
When the builder pulled up the lino on the floor, he found original floorboards, which originally we thought was a FIND! However, we soon realized the boards were all rotten due to water damage and general old age. Once we pulled the old floorboards up, we found that even the bearers and joists (the timber frame that holds the floor up) were also rotten.
The builder had to pull the entire floor up and lay down new bearers and joists. This kind of thing happens all the time when renovating old homes. There are hidden problems and extra expenses you always have to account for.
This next photo shows the new stud wall that divides the bathroom and the laundry. The window frame has been painted white and installed. And of course, the bathtub also makes an appearance! See what I mean about the ugly view?? I want to plant some tall Lilly Pilly’s outside the window to hide the wall.
This next pic shows the laundry, with its new french window! This window will eventually be painted gloss white. See the little hole is the wall underneath the window? That will be for the exhaust pipe that comes from the dryer – no steamy laundry for us!
Next, the gyprocker made an appearance, followed by the water-proofer. The grey areas are actually the water-proofing. We could have centred the bath exactly under the window, but I wanted a little ledge at the end of it for shampoo bottles and kids’ toys.
The tiling has also been done and it looks fantastic. But my little Jack has just woken up from his sleep, so I’ll have to leave you in suspense until my next post. Turns out that renovating, babies and BLOGGING don’t mix either ?
Hope you are all having a lovely humpday!