Haha yes was wondering if anyone would notice that :) It was a housewarming present to my wife from her twin sister so I‘d say we are keeping it

First tiles down

Bathroom tiles started with new bath

Meanwhile front double glazing, corten steel edging and plantation shutters finished

Progress had slowed a little waiting for the stone bench tops. Now these are installed and electrical work is finished. New lights fans and slim switches. Next week plumbers are back, cabinet handles fitted, splash back to be tiled and hopefully all finished before kitchen starts.

Insta snip from our builder of bathroom/ toilet choices to give an idea

Love those choices. I think sage green and timber are lovely in bathrooms

Found this of laundry picks. The vinyl wrap has the woodmatt finish

Plumbing is finished in bathroom and toilet. Just waiting for the shower screen install and cabinet front. Tilers are finishing splashback tiles in the laundry

Oeww, look at the loo roll!

The toilet roll holder took nearly half hour of procrastination between 3 people to hang in the right spot. Very important decision :)

Love the tiles in the bathroom and toilet - beautiful!!!

Busy Easter break laundry splash back is tiled and bathroom shower screen and mirror done

The bathroom cabinet was finished the other day and now bath and shower in use 🙂.

We were thinking of poly plantation shutters for the window but not sure.

Open to suggestions?

Beautiful. I love your choice of materials.

I was wondering, is that a wet area power point beside your vanity?

We are fitting Clipsal Iconic style throughout the house, I’ll speak to the Electrician next time I see him and ask what specs were used.

Plantation shutters would look good but I would prefer a roller blind which would be easier to keep clean and make access to the window simpler . You are doing a stunning job , magazine style !

I thought your window looked opaque so didn't think you needed covering but maybe I was wrong.

congratulations on a great job, well done you. Blinds will be needed at least for night time comfort and know that no one is watching even if it's just your blurred self

Thanks for the ideas and comments much appreciated. The windows are opaque except for the laundry which will need a blind of sorts to be decided as the cupboards are too close to the window for shutters.

We do like the windows with no coverings, below photos are down the side of the house. The old hardiefence is getting replaced with a modular wall in about 6 weeks or so which will be considerably higher and block out the neighbours. Our place is also the high side of a gradual slope. Might wait and see how that goes first before rushing decisions.

I'd go for no coverings. No one will see in. There is no point having opaque windows otherwise

A few photos of the kitchen as is before the demo starts Wednesday. Today plumbing and electrical were cut off and the oven removed. Over the weekend we moved everything out and pulled out the dishwasher.

Several hours have been spent with tape stuck all over the place to check against new plans

It was a few busy days before lockdown. Kitchen is gone.

Oh, certainly a throw back!

Why did they think brick looked good!?!

Maybe we thought that was the indoor flow back in the day.

Now we know better.

Look forward to seeing your design.

The exposed brick was a thing in our area when this home was built, a lot of places have it. We don’t mind a little bit but the kitchen was too much. The top area was also lost space.

This week the plasterers have prepped the walls in kitchen, ensuite and powder room, plumbers chased new pipe work and electrical pre wired for appliances and put in the first couple of down lights - they were moved off centre from where the island bench will run as a strip pendant light will go in. An air con vent had to be moved as well as it would of sat over the light.

And below is four Down lights removed for the moment. After an on and off then on again decision a velux skylight is going in

This is just a picture from another corner of the area to give an idea of the space. And show some of the grand temporary kitchen :)

Last week was a bit uneventful but the pace picked up again this week.

Velux skylight has been fitted in dining area opposite kitchen as it has always been a bit dark.

The kitchen cabinets have been delivered and the jigsaw now to be put together:

Appliances all delivered. Minor scare from Neff saying one oven could be delayed on a slow boat when they confirmed all good two weeks ago..,All ended up arriving though:

Builders Insta of the ensuite/powder room scheme and tiling is underway:

Great progress pics. Would love to see pics of the finished skylight when you’re ready.

Love your colour choices especially the bathroom

The skylight was a bit of a compromise as we have solar panels on the roof where the best angle was. Will post more photos once the gyprocker comes back

Just wondering who you used for your windows?

We have a 90s federation style house also, with the same exposed brick areas. Did you consider keeping any of the exposed brick? Interested to know your thought process. We are undecided on what to do with ours, have been considering limewashing/whitewashing or changing the mortar colour from yellow/cream to white.

We used DuoGlass to replace the windows and sliding doors.

We have kept a few spots of exposed brick through the house there is an open faux fireplace in the front room, another nook where the gas heater sits in the kitchen- dining area and one full wall in the games room. So there is a few feature spots still.

A few reasons why we have changed it in the kitchen:

-We wanted overhead cupboards and the little brick shelf was not of much use

-The brick island bench lost draw depth from the bricks

-The cooktop area was small and pokey. We wanted to remove the floor to ceiling brick oven space and move the fridge and ovens towards the pantry to gain some bench area for the induction top.

- The pantry door will be changed with the new cabinets, the brick walls don‘t really go with it then.

-Generally there was a lot of exposed brick and it just looked tired.

Changing your mortar colour first if you were thinking that could be worth doing. Maybe try a small area first to see how it looks? I guess once you whitewash etc it’s done then but looks good depending on the brick colour

Thanks so much - that’s really helpful!

Gyprockers came back today and filled in the velux void. We are pretty happy with it.

The cabinetmaker has been flat out this week installing the kitchen.

The stonemason came past this afternoon to remeasure now to cut the bench tops .

Looks great. Once the plaster is painted light will bounce down into the room. I know it’s cheeky but would you share the rough cost of the skylight addition. I think I’d like one or two in my house.

No worries all good :)

It was a bit over 4K with the solar powered remote blockout blind . We had another quote a bit cheaper but the guy didn’t have a very positive outlook with the job not straightforward . Our builder had said before he came out he could be like that and he proved to be. We have a big aircon control box in the ceiling for the ducting that was another challenge to work around a bit.

Thank you. That’s about what I had in mind but always great to have a real life example. I bet you’re glad you went ahead and did it.

Theres been some goings on the last couple of weeks. The painters have been prepping walls and finished the skylight. it lifts the old dark space really well.

The floor was the next big job. It has been ongoing the last couple of days and was a bit of a nightmare to move everything around to clear the space.

Then the kitchen can be finished next.

That is a beautiful floor.

Kitchen benches were started today. the stone mason found out his crew had cut the splash back section too small while he was on holidays so unfortunately didn’t finish for now.

Hit a snag this afternoon. the hole in the stone was too small for the new tap and the cabinet clearance might need to be changed. On the bright side though got a couple of new ovens and a heating draw.

It's looking beautiful. I hope the snags get sorted soon.

Progress update the kitchen finishes are now getting close. Most of the electrical is finished and appliances in. The stone splashback has been put in. The zip tap and rangehood need to be completed

The ensuite is also nearly finished, one mirror to put in, the new led light mirror has been installed. The shower had a part missing so waiting for that as well

Nice bathroom tile!

U put granite in? If so, any maintenance with granite?

No just engineered stone

Oww, OK.

Thanks

house is looking fantastic. lots of hard work paying off. Do you mind me asking what your budget was for a renovation of this size??

Thanks for the comments. To give an idea we looked at what we needed to do as the house is 30 years old and the kitchen appliances had all started to fail, cabinets falling apart, flooring damaged (only lino most of it) and bathrooms had cracked or chipped tiles etc. The previous original owners were also over 80 when they sold and couldn’t see the work required, in their eyes it was still fantastic.

We realised we could easily spend enough to go into the low 100s k, so decided to do more, take it further and go over 150k so we could apply for the 25k grant which we did before new year. This mainly included more electrical work, a Zip tap and the skylight than the general wet areas.

The builder gave us a ”mid-upper” range budget when we signed up which helped with tile selection and cabinet handles etc (not top end at all) and we have been pretty disciplined to keep the variations to a minimum (less than 10%).

It helped doing the double glazing and buying new appliances ourselves this was cheaper.

After getting the grant back we will be under 200k, but installing double glazing around the whole house wasnt cheap, this cost about 30 alone.