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Thursday 27 January 2011

Renovating begins.. now!

I have always been a fan of property investment and in particular buying the worst house in the best street and turning it into something magical.  Paying a premium for somebody else's renovation never appealed to me and you're not guaranteed to actually get what you want.  And I was always willing to forego all the bells and whistles in favour of a superior suburb. 

Work starts in two weeks exactly! gulp!


Above is the picture of what I'm working with and below is a list of tasks being undertaken.


Apart from the linen closet and wardrobe in the master bedroom that I am remodelling, the only other room that needs major work is the lounge room and dining room.  (Fortunately the kitchen and bathroom are perfect so it's  mostly cosmetic work that's required). Below is the picture of what I'm working with and below is a list of tasks being undertaken:

  • remove the old rusty security door at the front
  • paint front door and put in an antique hook/handle
  • replace the plaster on the walls in the hall - currently looking worse for wear due to an abudance of nails and cloak hooks
  • remove the glass sliding door (it's oh so 1970's)
  • remove ceiling fan and put in a chandelier
  • polish the floors
  • paint the walls and skirting boards and windows
  • knock down the wall leading to the kitchen to create an open planned space (wall cannot be seen in this picture - but the wall is in the spot from where the photo was taken)



The dark walls are going in favour of a warm grey colour like below to create an illusion of more space (photo taken from Semi Expat's blog of a cottage in Daylesford)


While the above is my inspiration for furnishing the lounge room - I want something simple and uncluttered and this photo is totally "me" interior decorating wise (the couch has been chosen, as has an arm chair in a navy blue with a gold stripe)... except this photo is also swaying me to do the walls in the living areas white.

Who knew that choosing paint colours would be so difficult! HEEEEELP!

17 comments:

  1. What a brilliant project and canvas to work on. Enjoy. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Xxxx

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  2. I'm so excited for you!! I'll try to pull myself together and think of paint. I'm a huge fan of anything grey or even navy on the wall - even though most of my place now is white (by the beach so it makes good sense). I LOVE those sliding doors in the living space!! LOVE LOVE LOVE

    are those the ones going?? noooooooooooooooooooo

    xo,
    c

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  3. Wow, that's quite an undertaking, but very exciting!!

    In the states (and I'm in assuming Oz too, they must have the same thing there) you can buy tiny little jars of paint to sample the color. Every time my mom paints a room, she first picks 3 or 4 of her favorite colors and tries them all out side by side to see how they look. Its helpful!

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  5. Wow that is exciting!! I love the living room, it looks large and the windows give plenty of light. I love grey and navy. Have fun with the paint colours, and just enjoy the experience! I'm jealous!!

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  6. Oh this is so exciting - how lovely you get to renovate and you know what you want... (apart from which shade of the million of off whites etc. there are!!) The room in the cotttage at Daylesford was painted in a kind of 'putty' colour - hard to describe - but sort of neutral with grey undertones.Think you are so right to get rid of the sliding doors by the way though! X

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  7. Oh wow! Very exciting! I wish I wasn't renting so I could give our retro place a facelift!

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  8. Wow that looks like an amazing space!! I am so excited to see how it comes together. I agree, renovating is seriously exciting.

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  9. Hi girl...
    I agree with Miss K above, and could not have said it better myself...i am excited to see the finished product:)

    Have a great day.

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  10. Im having the exact same paint dilemma at the moment. I was going to do an antique white with a feature wall but i have high ceilings and its too hard. Let us know what you decide!

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  11. oooohhhh:D so hpy fr you!!xx


    http://inablondeworld.blogspot.com/ check it out if you like it follow me i will follow you back x

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  12. New on this blog. I'm looking forward to see more.

    *N.xenia

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  13. Oh wow, M!

    I totally love the look of the living room with that huge window. I adore light, open spaces - and from the blank canvas you're starting wit this has the potential to become such an oasis of tranquil cool. As I'm refurbishing myself, I'm right in the middle of it. So it'll be exciting to follow you as you go along, too.


    I chose plain white (with no yellowish tinge) for my open plan kitchen/living room. I think the color is called 0500-N. A couple of the walls will get covered by white and grey striped wallpaper, but most of them are white. It's a very clean white, but not so bright that it looks like a cold hospital kind of colour.

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  14. Thanks for the feedback everyone. Think I'm going to go with the white.. now to pick the shade!! ARGH!

    Sniff - one of my major criteria was a house with lots of light. I said no to many because of lack of sunlight. Melbourne is miserable enough without living in a black hole!

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  15. looking forward for updates and the big reveal of the finish work.


    drop by at my blog.
    http://lildivine.blogspot.com/2011/01/garment-color-knitwear-giveaway.html

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  16. This is SO exciting! I've always wanted to remodel a house to make it perfect and exactly what I want. I can't wait to see how it turns out!!

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  17. Anonymous10:13 am

    Home decorating is the BEST!!!! I've found so much inspiration trawling the internet. We just had a cow hide rug delivered this morning!! Wooo!!

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