Let's talk money

Met with the architect today where we reviewed our feedback and had a look at some potential changes to the designs. The most significant decision was to take the 2 storey option off the table and move forward with the 1 storey design. Based on some back of the envelope costs the 2 storey options would have blown our budget to smithereens. Even the 1 storey option is beyond it but with some further iterations hopefully we can work on that.

It’s still going to be a big house. About 270sqm of undercover area. In thinking about it more, I’m quite happy not to have to be traipsing up and down stairs. We’ve done enough of that in our time.

Design - Round 2

So after much discussion, measuring and even Simon downloading some drawing software to do some design of his own we sent off a page of notes to the architects. Hope they’re ready for us!

Our biggest concern right now is the cost. We love the 2 storey option but we need to be realistic about what we can afford. Next week’s meeting will be of great interest.

It's starting

Well after a long wait over Christmas our renovation plans have finally kicked off.

Met with the architects on Thursday and they had a range of different conceptual designs to look at. Apparently they had about 16 options and then whittled it down to 4. Two are all on one level and two plans have an upstairs.

To give you the background, we have bought a 1930s art deco style California Bungalow. It hasn’t had much love in the last 10 or 20 years so it needs a lot of work. They do say to buy the worst house on the street don’t they? Well we’d be pretty close to that.

Our brief to the architects was for 4 bedrooms, 2/3 bathrooms, lounge, dining, kitchen, walk in pantry, rumpus and to maximise the amount of backyard space. We’ve also decided we are going to include a pool, so that’s in the brief now too.