Sunday, May 19, 2013

The good, the bad and the potentially expensive - Reno day 11



So, we are not even two weeks in and the reno is chugging along very nicely. Let me share the good bits. The post hole digger arrived and by the end of  day nine we had a lot of these





Then the next day, all the new deck footings were concreted in.






And then, the following day we appear to have a full set of bearers marking out the new laundry,





the future closed in granny flat rooms,




and the extra bit of lounge room before the deck starts.




Pretty impressive progress for three days work we thought. So that pretty much covers the good. The bad and the potentially expensive are pretty much the same thing and involve an discrepancy between the floor heights of Betsy the original house and the tacked on granny flat done about 15- 20 years ago. Let me provide a visual.




While it is probably not as bad as it looks, the left hand side is the bearer for the granny flat floor and the right hand side is the floor level for the rest of Betsy. It appears that when the granny flat was built no one had intended for the two structures to be joined in the future and now we have the little problem of about four centimetres to deal with. Not enough for a proper step and just enough to be a trip hazard.   We have been left pondering where exactly to place this trip hazard  tricky join and mulling over the costs associated with a few different alternatives.  So while I remind myself of the joys of an old house I am choosing to distract myself with this lovely view.




Just imagine a lovely set of recycled french doors where that wall is and a view down to the doorway into my new sewing room. See, that four centimetre trip hazard has just flown right out of your mind, right?

16 comments:

  1. Reading your posts always bring a smile Mel. Have a wonderful week and fingers crossed there are no more surprises well unless they are of the good kind like those fabulous blue boards. How fantastic are they?? I adore the idea of preserving a little bit of Betsys story.

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  2. Just keep your eye on the prize Mel, it's going to be LOVELY!

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  3. We have the builder coming round on Monday to firm up the plans for ripping the kitchen/lean to conservatory off the back of our house and there is a slight question mark over all the floor heights matching up - so I feel your pain! I'm just visualizing my new laundry room and hoping the rest will sort itself out.

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  4. Everything will be fine in the end.....there's always these little things that come along to try and trip you up, sorry bad joke! As I said it will be fine in the end! :) x

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  5. all im hearing is sewing room, French doors and blah blah blah!....did you say sewing room!!! xxx

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  6. Great progress! Best of luck with working it all out!

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  7. So much progress! So exciting!
    My neighbours had a similar problem...they solved it with a little ramp.

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  8. Ha, if the join issue is your biggest problem you are laughing!! Just say a prayer that is so and you don't end up with a set of doors that don't fit or something hideous like that. Looking good so far.

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  9. Looking good, it should speed along now the foundations are down. Now, more about the sewing room??

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  10. You've made such progress already.
    and sewing room, oh my gosh, you lucky lady you.
    x

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  11. I am drooling at your destruction! Floor schmore...it is chugging along! Could they just lift it up a bit for a tidy sum of thousands? Guess not. Good luck with it regardless.

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  12. Wow - looking at these photos takes me back and reminds me of how much we did and went through renovating our place. It looks very similar. Good luck with the rest, your kitchen will be beautiful with the marble!

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  13. Fret not - my renovating experiences have taught me that there is always a way around these issues that seem to crop up. I'm interested to know how your builder is going to resolve this for you. xx

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  14. I'm sorry, I just read the words "my new sewing room" and I nearly spat out my tea with total and complete jealousy. Steps? Trip hazards? Pah! You're getting A Sewing Room!! x

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  15. So exciting to see your renovations finally actually happening! It all looks great. When we first renovated, our builders somehow got something wrong, probably about 4cm worth ... So for the back 4m of our house the floor gradually slopes down! So that's an option ... LOL good for rolling balls to the back door ... My sister-in-law had a nasty compound fracture from a 1inch step in her house, but I think 4cm is enough to make a feature of ...? Not sure if it's going to be one big room or two though ...? Very happy you are getting a sewing room, am in the midst of painting and rearranging in my craft room, oh I am glad to have that room since we renovated.

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  16. Oh dear! I've seen that same problem crop up before in friends reno's and most end up putting in a little ramp. I noticed a few other ladies commented with the same... It that an option? But the hiccup aside - WOW! She's looking fantastic already. So much progress in what seems like such a short time! I know it's not a short time because of all the planning that goes in before hand, but Betsy is definitely going to sparkle and glow before you know it!

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