Twenty Two Month Renovation Update

 

I am back with an update in my renovation series and finally, during a very warm Saturday in the middle of June, we completed one of the most daunting jobs still to be completed in the house. We knocked down the small but very solid wall between out kitchen and dinning room. 

The space was too small for what we'd like to do with it and when you were in the kitchen you really felt like you were separated from company in the dinning room. We've changed our minds a couple of times about if this job was necessary or practical but when we order a new french door we decided to go for it before it was fitted. 

I wanted to do the job properly and thankfully because my parents are architects we were able to get a structural engineer involved and a building warrant approved without *too much* cost. Luckily for us the wall wasn't load baring so a beam didn't have to be installed (which would have been more complicated work) but it was wind retaining so a post had to be put up in it's place to keep everything stable. 

This mean we could do all the work ourselves with the help of Scott's Dad - not having to get trades people involved is always an option I'll go for. So the only costs were getting the building warrant from the council and structural engineer costs, hiring a skip to make getting rid of the rubble easier and the cost of the steel for the post. 

The work itself wasn't too bad - really dusty but we managed to keep it contained and covering the kitchen in sheets meant I didn't have to clean everything in the cupboards when we were finished. We deliberately left the old carpet down until the job was finished so this could just be taken up and thrown in the skip too. 

However... a few days later we realised we were going to have to taken down about another metre of the wall to move the opening of the stairs. It made sense but it was a difficult decision because it meant another Saturday spent demolishing and cleaning. Thankfully it was worth it and we are now happy with the result. Just because something is messy doesn't mean you shouldn't do it... 

It's made an instant difference - even though it does slightly feel like living in a building site it's instantly transformed the space and we now spend more time in here because we can actually speak to each other when cooking or clearing up. 

Finally, I wanted to show off our new flooring in the hall. Isn't it beautiful? After the doors were finished it was the last big job to make the space feel finished and I love coming home to an entranceway that feels like home.