It really happened...

After 10 1/2 years of waiting, wondering if it would ever happen, changing our minds time and time again and even having a 2 year break away, we started the renovations on our little old home last week. To say I was excited was an understatement, I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time - with each step, with each new thing that was done, I thanked our builder over and over again, with a big crooked smile on my face each time.

I thought you might like to travel this journey with me, so along with my stitching, family, blythe and outfit posts, I will now share regular updates on our renovations. We are on a shoestring budget and will be doing as much as we can ourselves too, so it is going to be a long process - but a great one. I decided at the beginning of all of this to change my name to Flo - because I plan on going with the flow and enjoying the whole process. So here goes, the start of our renovations!!

Before I begin, I just want to put a little disclaimer here - our house is old, really old, built in the war kind of old and I haven't really shared it full pictures of it before because, well, I have been embarrassed, but this is going to be a bare it all kind of process, so please be gentle with your comments. We are a work in progress, all of us!

I need to start at the beginning and show you around parts of our house so that you can understand what we are doing. This is the side of our house that has our front door. We have entered our home through this door since we purchased it all those years ago.

While it has been convenient for getting in and out of the car near the door etc, I have never liked having my front door at the side of the house. Our door looks into the next door neighbours kitchen window and in the past I have even heard the neighbours sneeze, so for both of our privacy's sake I hoped to return the front door to the front of the house.

Recently we had the idea that we could utilise our hallway and turn it into an en-suite. We really don't have a proper bathroom in this house - more on that later, so to fulfil the dream of having a bathroom with tiles, that you can clean seemed like a dream come true for me. To make this happen, we had to relocate our front door. We have long term plans to return the front of our house to verandahs so weren't sure what was best. Here is the front of our house.

We decided that while we wait to change things up inside the house and make new rooms for the kids, we would put a front door at the front of our house, so that we can easily come and go, and we can then begin work on our ensuite - yay!

So last Monday VERY early in the morning, my hard working husband was out pulling the boards and window out of the house before he headed off to work. It was SO exciting as I stood at the front of our house, with the front missing. For the first time ever I was able to get a glimpse into what our home will be like with a front verandah. I LOVED it and can't wait - but my middle name is Patience now (it's not really) so call me Flo Patience - I am going with the flow and being very patient.

Once hubby had removed the window etc, the poor guy had to head off to his day job. I am sure he secretly would have loved to be here to watch everything come together, so I took a heap of photos for him so that he could see the whole process.

A few hours later, this was in my front yard. I could finally stop pinching myself, it was really starting. The builder had arrived and started working on giving us a front door.

As I stood in our front room with the front wall missing, I really loved the whole feel of what our verandah will feel like one day. It felt great!

During my photo taking, I snapped a shot of some timber we had exposed by removing walls. I love that this shows the colours of our home, when painted by a previous owner. Just a little of the heritage of our home documented - exciting!

Our builder, Chris, got to work and before my eyes a front door appeared at the FRONT of our house. Such an exciting day for me and I day I will always remember. I really couldn't believe it. I think I may have been seen doing the dance of joy too.

Next the sisalation (I think that's what it's called) went up on the walls, getting everything ready for the cladding.

Looking out my front door - amazing!!

And finally came the cladding.

Before I knew it, the last board was being hammered into place. YIPEE!!!!

While our builder Chris was adding the last boards to the front of our house, I just sat outside watching in awe at the transformation of our home. It really was amazing and so very exciting!!

By the end of the day, our house was looking like this - totally different than it had started out in the morning and wonderful in my eyes. We had started, we had a new front door at the front of our house. I was excited to watch it all unfold and see where this journey would take us.

Next up, stairs!! Hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into our home. I'll share the next stage soon...