House Renovations Complete (oh what a year!)

1 Our house when we first purchased it in August, 2002
2 Donna's Dad (Graham) outside our finished house, December, 2006


3 Our new kitchen and living room
4 Western side of house

4 View of our house from below (yeah, delayed renos = delayed gardening!)

5 Lower deck

6 A mid-reno view of our living area (patch on floor is the old kitchen!!!) Yep. It was a gutting!

Well where do we start...mmmm. Let's just say that we have experienced the highs and lows of renovation and we are glad it is over! Our house is finally complete and we are loving being "home" at last with our little boy. We must admit we had a fair amount of exhaustion and wanting to curl up in the corner and sleep for the first few weeks, but we are enjoying life in our home now.

THE STORY:

March - August 2006: Renovations began...all went along swimmingly and we were up to "lockup" stage (ie just needing internal fitout) when KABOOM...our builders went bust!!! Award winning builders with major contracts all over the coast and they went under and into administration!

August 2006: Gray came home ashen-faced to tell me that our builder had gone into administration. We felt sick then cried then recovered and went into damage mode. Gray's family were life savers and helped us to secure our house (as one door had not been completed) and all the equipment and supplies sitting in it. We managed to terminate our contract with the builders just before the administrators came in 2 days later, and fortunately we could continue on with building as we did not really need to claim on insurance due to the stage our house was at. Our bank manager, Bob was also a saviour and was really great through the whole process. However...then began the saga of trying to find another builder!

August - September, 2006: We spent 5 weeks trying to find a new builder. Oh and did we mention that we also had to move at this time? We had been fortunate enough to be housesitting until September and WOULD have been able to get the house done by then, but now needed to move in order to finish the project. We were so lucky that my friend Nicole and her husband were moving to Cairns for a few months and we could housesit their house. Someone was watching over us (just not over the builder!). Can't say that moving was a pleasure but Nicole and Paul's house was gorgeous and being in Buderim was handy to our (unfinished!) home!

As for our new builder...Did you know that most builders won't take over a project handled by a previous builder? We were therefore so lucky to find our "angel" Marcel, who agreed to finish the project after being turned down by about 4 others. Funnily enough, most builders are more willing to do a ridiculous quote than actually just say "hey, I don't think this project is for me". Who knows how their minds work!

September 2006 - Marcel started our project and did a fantastic job of co-ordinating all the tradies etc. We found it very exhausting, as we had to go back to base one with organising everything. We had so much sorted with the previous builder, decisions made, items chosen and now we had to do it all again. Without Marcel we probably would have imploded. He was professional and so so lovely to deal with and always efficient and responsive. He was also building the massive Kings Church on the Sunshine Coast so the man deserves a medal for being ultra-organised and completing our little project at the same time with such professionalism. Thank you Marcel!!!!

November 2006 - we finally got to move back into our home. Yay! The feeling of relief was amazing, but a little over-ridden by the feeling of exhaustion as yes, we had to move again (3 times in a year with a baby)! A big thanks to our construction manager, Jett as he had been to the house site so many times during his first 9 months of life and was so patient with us, the nail guns and other building paraphanalia! What a gorgeous little man and we are so glad to have him come back to our real home now. Not that we don't appreciate the lovely homes we have been able to live in, but it is nice to be back home. He thinks the renos are pretty great!

Ah, somebody pour us a stiff drink!