I want to replace the window in the room, which will become the lounge room.  The current window size is one of those small sash windows which won’t open.

The quote from my friendly builder is about $3,000 and another $1,000 to install.  Ouch!

The Love of My Life took me to Macca’s Demolitions in Echuca  (located in north Victoria) where they have a myriad of old things and in particular windows.  I had planned to buy 1 window and ended up buying 3.  Have I mentioned that I am a terrific shopper (terrific is my words not probably what The Love of My Life would say).

Two of the windows that I have bought are huge and I now want to replace the window in the guest bedroom and the other one is a perfect size window for the bathroom, which currently has a poxy little window made up of loovers and glazed glass.

The price was $900 for the lot.  What a bargain. They are all aluminum and have fly screens.

Now the problem will be how do I get them to Seymour.  This is over 100kms south and as I have mentioned they are huge.

I want to be able to pass on great information to you that crosses my desk.

So throughout the time I will list books or DVD’s that I want you to know about.  If you have anything that you think I should watch or read that is to do with renovating, buying or selling houses or the odd tipbit.  Please pass it on.

I re-watched The Secret (by Rhonda Byrne) the other night.  I first watched this  DVD 12 months ago and I think it is one of the things that has turned my life around.  I received the book and the DVD for my birthday so I, like any other Piscean took it as a sign.

Well I watched this about 8 times over the next week or two.  Apart from the materialistic stuff there is the message that we can be in charge of our lives.  I don’t know about you but my life was about trying to get through the everyday ups and downs; this meant that I was merely going through life trying to keep my head above water and not really living the life.  With this I mean, emotionally and financially.

The Secret shows that you can have what you want – that there is an abundance of everything and really it is up to ourselves to know what it is we want.

From there I have been on a mission to acquire the lifestyle I was craving.  Since that time my life has changed immensely – resulting from my change of attitude.

Mind you I am not perfect at it and at times I have to really work at it.  But I am extremely grateful for my life and for the fantastic people that are in my life.

So if you get the opportunity – watch the DVD – you may like me need to watch it a few times to really understand the message

Good luck with it.  Let me know how you find it.

this is the wall to be removed

The Love of My Life came to visit, along with my daughter – and we started discussing removing the wall. This is the wall between one of the bed rooms and the small room which will be my office .  I want to have the wall removed to turn it all into one room which in turn will open up the room.

Anyway daughter and fLove of My Life and I started to bang at the walls.  We discussed that there would only be one electrical wire at one end which we will stay away from until the builder arrives.

Trust me bashing down a wall is terrific fun – that is if you can stand the dust, mess and absolute caos.  I managed to cover the furniture in the family room while all of this was happening.

The walls are very old and are made of small slats of timber filled in with something that looks like concrete and horse hair.  We were disgusting after a few minutes absolutely covered in dust.

After we had been at it for a few hours, Love of My Life had to leave – hmms just when the cleaning up is about to happen.  Daughter and I shovelled the mess into the wheelbarrow which I could barely lift to haul outside into a skip which I had waiting. It feels like we have been doing this for days.  I have muscles hurting that I didn’t even know existed.

Removing the wall took a number of hours over a number of days but removing the debris took the longest.  I honestly thought that we would never get to the end of it.

It is now 3 weeks since I had received the first letter from the surveyor – just as I was starting to get toey about it a letter arrived.  It had a copy of the letter that had been sent to Council with the proposed plan of the block.  This is the version where the car port is removed.

As the car entrance to my block is located on the other block (I will call it lot 2 from now on)  I will need to have an entrance onto Lot 1.  My plan is to have this from the front which is a main thoroughfare.

The store room is completed – this is so good!!.  After living with my things in boxes for a number of weeks, now I will now be able to access them.

My plan all along is to have the fridge located in the pantry, as there is no room in the kitchen or the dining room for that matter.

Many years ago when I was looking for a new fridge I had 4 teenage children and it seemed as if my whole life revolved around them needing to eat.  So I searched for and consequently bought the biggest fridge I could find.  Needless to say they all eventually left home and all that remains in my oversized fridge.

I told the builder this plan – it seems that I had not thought about the 3 metre wide chimney that is sitting behind the kitchen.  Therefore the door size  to get the fridge in is restricted.

Now I can tell you that it took one builder, one apprentice, and one electrician to manipulate my fridge into that pantry.  Saying that: they had to remove the arcatraves and the skirting board to get it in.  Plus I think there was some damage done to the apprentice in the process.

The fridge is in – whatever am I going to do should I decide to leave this house.

In the little lean-to attached to the house there is a very old unused for many years toilet and bath.  (2m x 3m).  The bath has a cover over it which freaks me out.  I have visions of finding a past owner or the like lying in the bath. There is no way I am going to lift up the timber.

Anyway about the idea.

This outhouse is connected to the kitchen on the inside.  So I have walked around, examined it and now think that I could fill in the doorway in the lean-to, remove some cupboards in the kitchen, put in a new door and fill with shelves.  Hey presto there is a walk in pantry.

I contacted my friendly builder (I think he is friendly as he knows there is lots of work coming his way) who comes around and confirms that this can be done. He is happy to do the job (of course!).

By the way, he lifted the timber to only find a very old bath.  I am a little disappointed as I had imagined all sorts of things that could have gone on over the past 100 years in this house.

I have received a letter from the surveyor with an aerial photo of the house and block, they have included 2 versions of how the subdivision could look. 

There is a car port behind the house and the two versions include keeping the car port in its original position or moving it.  If I keep the first option the second block will be very small.  I have decided to move the car port and this will make both blocks similar in size.

I have to pay $364 to the Shire for the Planning application fee.

Subdivision costs to date $1794

Life in my old house has taken on some semblance of order.  My first job was to pull down the curtains and threw them out.  This was really satisfying especially after taking down the ones in the hallway (see previous blog) and I have convinced myself that the house now looks much nicer.  I can tell by my visitors faces that they don’t agree and that they think that I am a mad woman.

Most of my things are still packed and there is a little lean- to attached to the west side of the house so am able to keep a lot of things in there.    The original lounge room is going to be turned into a bedroom and the 3^rd bedroom into a lounge. There is a wall between the little office and the 3 rd bedroom which I am going to remove.  This will open the house up- I can see it in my mind and constantly visualise it.

One evening prior to Christmas I started on the wall paper in the hall way.  I started with bought wall paper remover the spray on sort and after purchasing 7 bottles I was given the hint that hot soapy water did the trick.  So using the spray bottles I just fill with hot water put in a squirt of dish washing liquid and spray it on a small patch at a time, when it is really soaked through the paper will come off easily using a scrapper.

I did this most evenings until wrecked then fell into bed so have lived in a sticky mess for a couple of weeks now.  But what a difference it has made. 

I have done it – the balance of the deposit has been paid and the house will be mine in 60 days. My first offer was considerably lower than the asking price (a bit cheeky really) and the owner made me wait 2 weeks before he told me no.  We have been bartering since then.  Well I have now done it. 

I have reassessed the “yukkiness” and have made a list of the things I will do.  I am feeling much better about this house and I know that I can turn it into a home that I will be proud of.

My first priority is to remove all of the curtains and clutter that has been left.  And I will make the garden beautiful – this house has a lovely little alcove: facing the east.  This will be a beautiful little hide away where I will start my day – every morning I am going to eat my breakfast here  – so shall make this a priority to put in  some lovely plants and nic-nacs of which I have many.

I have been in touch with a local surveyor about the possibility of subdividing the land.  I have received a letter back saying that they have looked at the block and they believe that a subdivision is possible.  They included a process of how it would be done and that I need to pay a fee of $1430 before they commenced.

I am writing about my experience of subdividing as a lot of people are asking me about the process, particularly the time taken and the cost.  So will have a running cost throughout this blog.

This is so exciting – my project is on the way.

Subdivision cost to date $1430.

I have told the agent that I am interested in purchasing the house subject to approval from a builder and a pest inspection.  I have 4 weeks to get these completed and had to pay a deposit of $1,000 with the balance due in 4 weeks.

 
A local builder came to inspect the house; he examined it thoroughly and told me that the house is very sound with minimal movement and no sign of white ants; although in some rooms there have been borers.  This freaked me out a little, seems that they are not nearly as damaging as white ants although they can do some damage.  The builder advised that the damage has been done in the bedrooms and it was the floor boards that had been damaged and only minimally. I may have to replace the floorboards at a later stage.  I was reassured that non of my visitors or me would fall through the floor.

I paid another visit to the house and I feel quite nervous – the house looks shocking.  Can I really do this?

I feel as if the things that I had thought were awful on previous visits is now 100 times worse.  There is a different colour wall paper on every wall and on the ceilings.  Can you believe that someone would be able to wallpaper a ceiling alone 12 foot ceilings?  In the main bedroom it is ripped and there are great lumps hanging down.  Every room has a different colour – carpet, wallpaper and curtains.  I must admit I was freaking out and didn’t really sleep to well for a couple of nights.