We have begun- Reno Day 1

This is the sight that greeted me on my way home from work yesterday when I popped around to check the letterbox. We had only just finished cleaning the granny flat out on the weekend and  were unsure when exactly the builder would be starting. It appears that he is as good as his word. The only sad part is that poor Legoman missed out on all the fun of the demolition, as this is what I found around the back.

Yep, the deck is completely gone and there are already string lines up to mark out the new stumps. Unbelievable, this is day one. Lucky I took that hasty shot of the deck on Sunday.

See the weird, jagged floor cut outs that were a feature of the old, mostly roofless deck? Feng Shui Nonna (aka my mother) has been telling me to get rid of those poisoned arrows pointing into the house for three years. We should all be sleeping better tonight then I guess.

You can really see the shape of the existing house well now. I suspect that the jutting out section on the left was probably where the old kitchen was, before they shrunk and moved it in order to make this another bedroom.  The three bi- fold doors will extend to become seven all the way over to the right hand side.

The verandah of the granny flat has all been removed. This is being enclosed in order to enlarge the rooms and the far end of this old verandah will have a set of french doors directly into the new kitchen.

This is the back jutting out room on the left and the old kitchen on the right. That wall in the middle will be going and the new kitchen will run through both rooms. That wall currently blocks much of the light  from getting in so I will be excitedly waiting for it to come down.

As I wandered around I saw that a single board had been removed from outside the laundry. We suspected that this room probably contained asbestos and the builders were obviously trying to establish if this was indeed  the case.

If you haven't been reading my blog for two years, you may not have stumbled onto posts ranting about my laundry in a cupboard, in my lounge room. Needless to say, it is a stellar example of  the previous renovations Betsy has been traumatised by. Aside from my excitement at having a proper laundry vs a cupboard for the first time in 13 years (my last house also had this but more sensibly located in the bathroom), it was pretty thrilling to read these words.

Yep, that would say "Manufactured Without Asbestos". I am hoping those three little words have just carved a big chunk out of the $4k allocated to asbestos removal and I get to spend it on something much more exciting, like ceiling fans, or down lights, or louvres. Woohoo, it seems this reno is finally off and racing.