The Holiday's Over.

Hello again! 
It's been a very busy start to the year in our household - hence why I've been AWOL for a little too long. 
It started with a dinner party to see in the New Year and our weeks went on to encompass 4 blissful (yeah right - there were 4 x almost 2 yr olds present) days of camping, plenty of impromptu family barbeques by the in-laws' pool, screeds of 2nd birthday parties, and yet more entertaining! I'm looking forward to doing big fat nothing for a while now...aaahhhhhhhhh...!
But because it's a new year and it's that time when we all start thinking about a fresh start, setting new goals and seeking out fresh inspiration - I thought I'd share with you the workings of a good friend of mine who's started this year off with exactly that ethos in mind. 
2011 is off to a fast and frenetic start for the Sokolich's, who since deciding to sell their much loved first home, got to work to make it the best little Waterview cottage the market had to offer - and they did it. It sold it in a week. Not surprising, once you see just what they did, and how much the entire renovation cost. They've shown me just what is achievable even if you don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend. Read on and be inspired!

Michelle and her husband Kim moved into their adorable, but  rustic, 2 bedroom Waterview bungalow in 2003; fresh faced, newly engaged and full of vim and vigeur for the home they would create for themselves and their children to come. 
Flash forward to 2011, and the aging and cramped 1930s house they moved into has been transformed into a spacious and practical, modern, charming 3 bedroom home; full of life's comforts and jam-packed with a growing family's memories. 
With a slender budget of $75,000 ($10k of which was spent having the place re-wired) they took out walls, and even added a couple. They made space where before there looked to be none. They played with the layout and entrance ways, shifting things around almost like it was one of those jumble puzzles that you have to move all the pieces about until they fit properly. And they took out the cole-range. 


Now they're sharing their Destitute secrets to making your money go sooo much further: 


**ARCHITECTS AREN'T THE ONLY ONES WITH GOOD IDEAS. We found a builder who had some really good ideas about what would work.  I think we saved a bomb by doing that.. but if you forgo the architect I recommend paying lots of attention to details like skirting boards in other people's houses and gleaning ideas that way.  

**FIXTURES DON'T MAKETH THE HOME. We saved money on things like taps, the toilet...all those little details that you can spend insane amounts of money on (we had friends that put in a thousand dollar tap!) but if you're on a budget I don't think that's where you need to spend the money.   We don't notice those details on a daily basis, and when people come round they certainly aren't looking at the taps, just the overall effect.
  
**KLEVER KITCHEN ETI-KITT. They can easily cost around 30-40 grand.  We looked around at a few of the bigger companies offering kitchens, and had a few sample plans drawn up by them.  In the end we decided what we wanted and went to a small local cabinetmaker who did the entire kitchen for $7000 (excluding appliances).  Massive savings!
We brought our kitchen appliances/bathroom cabinet at big factory sales and kept them in the garage till we needed them.  Those big sales at places like Ellerslie showgrounds are usually advertised in the Herald, so keep an eye out as soon as you even start thinking about renovating.


**THOSE WHO PAINT TOGETHER, STAY TOGETHER. We painted the inside and outside of our house ourselves. A bit of hard slog never hurt anyone.. (er, apart from her husband!).


**IT'S NOT UGLY, IT'S 'CHARACTER!'. Our beautiful wooden floors were a bit higgelty piggelty - wood going in different directions.  We could have got the builder to lift it out and make it all match perfectly (at great expense) but we decided to leave it in and call it 'character'.  I think it looks fine!

**TILES SCHMILES! Don't be scared of lino!  Everyone was horrified when we said we were going to put lino in the bathroom - the builder almost refused to put it in!  But you will be amazed at what is on offer in the lino range these days.  It was SO much cheaper then tiles and I think looks great.  The builder had to eat his words!

**TALK IS CHEAP. Or at least it is if you can sweet talk your local Landscape Designer into drawing you up a DIY Garden plan! It only cost around $200 for the overall plan, complete with a plant by numbers diagram as well.  He then gave it to us so we could do the actual work.  That way you can do section by section as you get the money - confident that it will all work together in the master plan.

All in all, they increased the value of the house by $200 thousand - so it was well worth it.  They could've gone to town and spent $200k or more on renovations, but would've completely over-capitalised and ended up with zero profit. 



Check out the pictures of this amazing budget renovation and be wow'd! Farewell Waterview cottage - we'll all miss hanging out with you! 

BEFORE: PHASE ONE - The 'we can live with this' slight improvements.

As a start, Michelle and Kim removed the wall that separated the kitchen and dining (pic 1) to open up the space for an open planned living area, and ripped up the old carpet. 

PHASE ONE: AFTER

Below, is the old entrance/dining room (the room off the kitchen) before Phase 2 took hold.

PHASE TWO: The Big One. 

Bathroom/Kitchen/Hallway/Bedroom extension/Extra bedroom added.

BEFORE - bathroom

AFTER 

The laundry tub was moved out to the landing by the backdoor, the old shower (not pictured) was removed and a new bath/shower combo added along with a new modern vanity. They tiled, but didn't go overboard with it. Another cost cutting measure which works a treat! And the vinyl looks great, no? 

AFTER: lounge 

AFTER: kitchen

The kitchen wall where the coal-range sat was pushed back in order to reclaim a little extra room to give the kitchen a nice big open feeling. 

You'll notice there's also a wall where the entrance/dining room used to be, going off towards the door. Well - that, is now this:

AFTER: 3rd bedroom added.

And here is the master bedroom, after a wardrobe was taken out (at the head of the bed) to create more space, yet again.

And finally - the exterior. Check out these incredible Before and Afters!

It's gone from this:

To this:

I think they did an amazing job, so that's why I had to share. Thanks so much to Michelle and Kim for letting me feature their gorgeous first home on my wee blog. I'm looking forward to the next project they're let loose on in a few years time! 

In the meantime - please pop along and visit Michelle's blog here. Have a cuppa, a read, and be into win some lovely edible giveaways! My very own Birth Story will be gracing it's pages very soon!

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