So, we have decided to tackle a big, stressful project, and do some renovations at home.
I recently pulled down a list of builders and home renovators from the Gauteng Master Builders Association, and sent off an email to all of the ones who had email addresses listed early last week. We’ve spent the past 2 weeks interviewing those who responded to my mail, and have finally made a short list of 3 companies who we felt could see our vision and we could work with.
Yesterday, Quentin picked up the original plans for our house from the council, so that we can get new plans drawn up for the work to be done.
We have broken the work down into 3 projects.
Project one
Extending the boundary wall up to 2.4m, and replacing the current gate with a nice, big, solid gate that allows us some privacy.
The current gate is really lovely, but anyone who walks past can look in, which means we can’t really spend time in our front garden without outside disruptions.The front wall also currently has a pedestrian entrance inlet, which also reduces our privacy, as well as eats away valuable garden space.
Our next door neighbours also did their own build project in the last 2 years, and left us with a hideous sight, as you can see.
As part of extending the wall, we will also correct this.
Project 2
Extending the back of the house by 2m, increasing the size of our bedroom, bathroom and the scullery.
Our bedroom, aka the master bedroom, with our en-suite bathroom, are both really, really tiny. We really can only fit our bed and small bed-side tables into the room. And we’ve been getting claustrophobic.
The scullery is also really tiny, so our washing machine and tumble dryer currently reside in one of the outbuildings.
This is a view of the back of the house that will be extended.
We have some really funky ideas for this area, like glass bricks and aluminium to modernise the look a little, and, of course, giving us some extra space.
My only condition is that I need to save my plants, especially the lovely big rosemary plant that is currently outside our bedroom window.
Project 3
Demolishing the outbuildings and building a pool.
The outbuildings really don’t serve much purpose right now, other than storing all the crap we’re not sure what to do with. Also really not in love with the look of the broken concrete ‘paving’.
I won’t lie and say that I am not nervous about this. It is going to probably cost us a fair bit of money, and one hears all sorts of horror stories about builders running away with money and so on. I do feel more comfortable with going with an accredited builder, which is why we only looked at builders on the GMBA list, and why we have gone through this process of interviewing them.
But, if the end product is anything like we envision, it will be all worth while.
No comments:
Post a Comment