Brief background – condensed beyond even a Reader’s Digest condensed book (hell if I don’t we’ll be here all day). Our grand plan had been to build a Victorian style house in Bellville (www.retro.co.za/house/) but due to circumstances far too complicated to go into we have ended up buying an old house in Fish Hoek with the excellent assitance of Kim (www.majorkim.com) … which is fast becoming known as ‘Plan # & counting’.
It appealed for three reasons – price, space and proximity to schools. It also has the most amazing garage with 10 (I kid you not) plug points. The previous owner obviously must have worked from home.
What we have to work with:
Kitchen: to be completely gutted and re-designed
Three bedrooms: 2 of which have been allocated to Jessica and Tamsyn, Jessica’s room is formerly the master bedroom with a rather oddly arranged en-suite. You walk through the shower to get to the toilet. Still when you’re 12 going on 13 this really isn’t a problem. (She actually has the nicest room in the house) Tamsyn’s room is the other large room. The last bedroom (really very small) will be converted into a scrapbooking room for me.
Bathroom: to be gutted and replaced with a Libre Misty bath/shower combo, basin relocated to a different wall
Seperate toilet: A small handbasin to be added
Lounge area: The low ceiling on the one side to be removed, a platform accessed by a spiral staircase (Yay!) on the other side
Utility room: (originally a single garage) to be transformed into a master bedroom with en-suite
Small room off entrance: to become a small intimate diningroom
Area outside kitchen: cement to be completely taken up and relaid probably with bricks and a jacuzzi installed in the one corner closest to the master bedroom
All carpets and tiles (apart from Jessica’s bathroom) to be replaced.
And that is just a portion of what needs to be done – I haven’t added any of the electrical/piping/plumbing bits – mainly because Wouter’s the one that knows what has to be done there.