And so it begins...

Well, almost...

Owen arrived today with the site fence.  We unloaded it and stacked it in the drive.  He is going to come back tomorrow to put it up and start cutting the concrete.  The first list of jobs are
put up the site fence
cut up the cement block
pull down the back deck
pull out the green waste and concrete.

I'll post pictures at the following link.  You can also access the photos by following the link at the top right of this web page.

http://gallery.me.com/ross_ditchfield#gallery

Council dragging their feet - and us not helping things

Admittedly, it is partly our fault that the council approval is taking so long.  We initially submitted the plans just before Christmas.  Then of course there is the Christmas break.  Then council decided they needed a heritage report - not because the house is of “heritage value”, but because there are 3 buildings in the area that are.  Mind you, none of them are particularly close.  Anyway, that was another few weeks to get that organised and in to council.  Then another month for them to mull over it.

Finally, when council were just about to approve the plans, we decided to change them.  After looking at the likely cost of the project, we decided that we needed to scale things down a bit.  As such, we scrapped the 2m northern extension that was going to make the back bedroom into our master bed and en suite.  We decided to leave that bedroom and the current bathroom where/how they are (though the bathroom will get a makeover).  The new master bedroom will be the current lounge, and the current dining room becomes the e/s instead of the main bath (as per the original plans).

Well, all this took another couple of weeks to get drawn up.  Council was pretty quick once we had the final plans to them.  Now things are finally approved, though we have decided on another change!

This time it is the tile roof that is making us scratch our heads.  The roof needs to come off so that the old sarking can be replaced.  This process will mean that we lose about 10-20% of the tiles.  We will also need additional matching tiles for the extension.  We don’t like the look of new tiles so I did a fair bit of research and found a supplier that could (almost) match tiles in (almost) sufficient quantities.

Everything was looking OK until a local tiler warned us about the potential problems with using old tiles.  Since they were already 60yrs old, they are likely to be brittle which means that more are likely to break when reroofing.  This means that the additional tiles we would need had to expand again.  He also pointed out that the tiles I was getting from Sydney could have salt damage which tends to make them porous and not so good in the longer run.  All this put into question the longevity of the tiled roof.

Since we didn’t really feel like having to reroof in 10yrs, we decided on the readical option of replacing it with a galvanised roof which has the added benefit of being cheaper in materials, installation and even frame specs. So gal it is.

Anyway, to make the change we had to submit a variation to council - so we’ll see how long it takes this time.  At least work can start while the application is going through.

Let the Renos begin!

Well, after a long blog posting hiatus, The Rambling Ditch is back to (hopefully) document our renovations.

I guess the best place is to start with the current state of play.  Our 1956 built "original condition" 2 bedroom weatherboard house is in need of a bit of an update.


Well, the starting point was actually about a year ago when I started researching architects and ideas for the renovations.  After an extensive search, we decided to go with Kathy Barnsley Architects in Moss Vale.  We liked Kathy because we felt that she immediately understood where we were coming from with our ideas, and she was very approachable and helpful.

It turned out to be a good choice as we have had a great design experience with Kathy.  We liked her design ideas from the start and she has been easy to work with.  After a couple of iterations of the design, we finally submitted plans to council just before Christmas 2010.

While Council mulled over our proposed additions and alterations, it was time to find a builder.  People recommended a number of local builders.  We felt that a local builder was the go as they have to live here and have to live and die by their local reputation.  It seems that the Berry builders have not been affected by the wider building downturn and finding a builder that could start within a reasonable timeframe proved a little harder than we had originally anticipated.

Luckily, the first builder to be recommended to us, Owen Carter of OPC Constructions, was willing and able to take us on.  We are finally ready to roll.

Inspirational

The shuttle that took us back to the Havana airport also picked up an elderly lady from another hotel.  We helped her into the airport with her bags and discovered that she was an Australian travelling alone.  very adventurous. She was on our flight back to Cancun, but we didn't see her again until we were coincidentally checking into the same airport hotel in Cancun.

This gave us an opportunity to discover a bit more about this intrepid traveller.  We were amazed to find out the following... Her name is Pat, she's 80 years old this year and is form Adelaide.  Pat is what you'd call a seasoned traveller.  In fact she took herself off to Paris (by herself) to celebrate her 80th earlier this year.  She has been on a 3 month adventure around eastern Mexico (which she has visited at least twice before).  Pat first travelled when she was 21 when she caught a boat to Spain fell in love and almost married a Spaniard.  She returned home and eventually married an Aussie, but they kept the travel bug alive, saving up to do long trips when ever they could.  They were married 50 years, and she only lost her hubby last year.  That hasn't put her off though.

When we met Pat, she had just completed a 3 week trek around Cuba.  She had organised an interpreter/driver and off she went.  It made our few days in Havana look a bit povo!  She was already planning her next trip.  Totally inspirational.  I hope I'm still going that strong at 80.