I had used several triggers in previous contributions and had run out of ideas. But the other day, as we were talking about our newly renovated bathroom, my husband and I realised that we have often undertaken renovations. We had just said that we were not renovators when we remembered that in fact, we have often undertaken renovations. We are just not people who do the work ourselves.
Our first home was in an outer suburb of Melbourne. We had just had our first baby and I was no longer working. We added a garage and sealed the gravel driveway with bitumen to help keep the weeds down. Not a major change and nothing inside the house.
We moved to Adelaide when our second child was around 15 months. We extended the house, but I cannot remember the driving force for this. The extension “gave birth” to a second room. The proposed family room ended up with a second room as a study/spare room. This was a more major renovation.
The home we bought on returning to Melbourne was a fifty’s house in Box Hill. The kitchen was certainly dated, with little (NO!) bench space. I used a table in the kitchen as a bench. But eventually it had to change. This was the first kitchen we renovated.
Then came a move back to Adelaide. This was a lovely home with no changes required. Still we managed to make a small change. It had a pitched roof, with the ceiling space high enough to stand. So we put a floor into the ceiling cavity and added pull down steps for access to form a workshop area.
In 1987 we moved to Canberra. A year later, after selling our Adelaide home, we looked for a larger home to meet the needs of our teenagers. Not finding anything suitable, another renovation was required. The family room we added includes a major change to the kitchen. So another major kitchen renovation. Of course, it was less than 18 months later that both our children decided to leave home. We ended up living in this house longer than any other home and ended up making another renovation.
There was a further move within Canberra. This was a brand-new house, so really nothing to do. We did manage a minor change – a new pergola over a large courtyard after adding some coloured patterning to the concrete.
So this brings us to Benalla. Over the last two years we have renovated the kitchen and main bathroom. And we have had the house painted and new carpet. With a planned en-suite bathroom renovation for next year, we believe we will not need to do anything in the house for the next twenty years. It will be interesting to see if this is the case.
So for a family that are not really “into renovations”, we seem to have made quite a few.
Joy Shirley
November 2020
Our first home was in an outer suburb of Melbourne. We had just had our first baby and I was no longer working. We added a garage and sealed the gravel driveway with bitumen to help keep the weeds down. Not a major change and nothing inside the house.
We moved to Adelaide when our second child was around 15 months. We extended the house, but I cannot remember the driving force for this. The extension “gave birth” to a second room. The proposed family room ended up with a second room as a study/spare room. This was a more major renovation.
The home we bought on returning to Melbourne was a fifty’s house in Box Hill. The kitchen was certainly dated, with little (NO!) bench space. I used a table in the kitchen as a bench. But eventually it had to change. This was the first kitchen we renovated.
Then came a move back to Adelaide. This was a lovely home with no changes required. Still we managed to make a small change. It had a pitched roof, with the ceiling space high enough to stand. So we put a floor into the ceiling cavity and added pull down steps for access to form a workshop area.
In 1987 we moved to Canberra. A year later, after selling our Adelaide home, we looked for a larger home to meet the needs of our teenagers. Not finding anything suitable, another renovation was required. The family room we added includes a major change to the kitchen. So another major kitchen renovation. Of course, it was less than 18 months later that both our children decided to leave home. We ended up living in this house longer than any other home and ended up making another renovation.
There was a further move within Canberra. This was a brand-new house, so really nothing to do. We did manage a minor change – a new pergola over a large courtyard after adding some coloured patterning to the concrete.
So this brings us to Benalla. Over the last two years we have renovated the kitchen and main bathroom. And we have had the house painted and new carpet. With a planned en-suite bathroom renovation for next year, we believe we will not need to do anything in the house for the next twenty years. It will be interesting to see if this is the case.
So for a family that are not really “into renovations”, we seem to have made quite a few.
Joy Shirley
November 2020
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