Inspiration for the Renovation

This week marks the start of the main phase of the renovation of our 'Cabin by the Sea'. However with all the work we have done over the holidays, it feels like we need a break, but it's full steam ahead with design meetings booked and tradesmen coming to tackle other projects we have in motion already.

We are meeting with two building designers this week which we have short listed, so that has meant making sure we know what the key ideas we want implemented are, and then getting them detailed in a master plan for council / building certification approvals. Then we can crack on and get moving on the physical construction. 

I have spent a little bit of time lately playing around with a rough outline of what we are hoping to get done...

One of the benefits of living in a property before renovating is you get the opportunity to see what works and what doesn't, and whether your original ideas survive both the changing seasons, as well as your ongoing scrutiny of your design brief. For example, when we first moved in we looked at ways to improve the outdoor entertaining area, I was leaning towards tiles, and Kate was leaning towards decking. But over time we've come back to decking as a preference because the house (being a masonry block home) lacks some timber tones. After seeing the following picture online, this is certainly the type of look and feel that we are after and hope to achieve...

We hope to tackle the outdoor entertaining area first so that we can have some sort of makeshift kitchen set up outside (fridge, bbq and pizza oven) while the kitchen renovation gets underway. We will be sticking largely with the same layout (due to the floor tiling being done up to the existing cabinets footprint), although it will still be a complete gut and we will try and get something a little more modern and functional like this kitchen here...

While the above two projects are not beyond our capability to design, quote, source materials and coordinate tradesmen during construction, the next project and the main part of the renovation will be breaking new ground for us; building in the double garage to convert this space into a Master Bedroom Suite complete with en-suite and walk in robe. I have been wanting to do this since seeing the Jazz Homes Machin display home at North Shore last year, and it's Master Bedroom (below) is a good hint at what we are hoping to achieve...

And last but not least we'll be aiming to build a double carport out front and improve the facade of the existing house, to give it a little bit of street appeal that it currently lacks. A couple of designs (without the carport) that provide inspiration include the Machin 247 (by Jazz Homes) and the Beach House (by McDonald-Jones Homes).

No doubt it will be another busy week and we'll keep you up to date as things progress.

Cheers, Col

P.S. It's back to school week for the girls as well. As if Kate needed anymore things to juggle this week ;-)