So, today the bank said we can buy the house we want. Yay! It comes with a decent section and is quite literally the worst house on a good street. Solid, but unloved and run down. Which it means it is in our price range and an area we prefer. Good thing the wife and I have just renovated a 1905 Villa and sold it, I guess
I planned on doing some drawing in Sketchup, to see what we could do with the property. I saw this thread, so threw my name in. I will update here as we go, likely over the next few years or so - but at this stage I'll get the basic plan hammered out as I stated in that thread. I'll do a floorplan also, but for now have done where the shed will go (very important for me) and how far we plan to extend the house (very important for SWMBO).
A couple more pics of what we plan to do. Once we take over I'll post photos of the process also, and how it lines up with what we planned. The line up the driveway side is where the intended extension starts.
I usually suggest planning in 2D, but if you are capable of doing 3D = Awesome!
2D planning has it's place though. Even if you use 2D to plan your 3D. I like to draw a floor plan / yard plan to scale in Photoshop. Or use a plan view of your 3D. Then I collect clip art of furniture, appliances, bushes, barbecues, etc. resize them to scale and then slide them around in 2D. It's quick way to start. Back in the day I did this with paper cut outs. Imagine that! But I worked in architecture and can envision how a 2D plan will look in 3D.
That's where your sweet 3D model comes into play. Walk-through animations (we call them pre-visualizations or pre-viz) are by far the best way to show a client what a project will look like, because many of them can't read blueprints.
Yeah that's pretty much what we do actually. Draw it on paper till we have the direction we like, then I draw it up in 3D so we can spin it around and check it from all angles.
The floor plan will be drawn effectively in 2D, then once happy with the floor plan I'll drag it up into walls to check the space.
I just found a walking mode in Sketchup which will be cool for seeing how the interior layout flows I think.
One thing we haven't worked out is where the clothesline will be. Has to be on the back lawn as that's where the sun is, thinking maybe a long one along the fence to keep the lawn clear for kids playing etc.
Starting the floor plan. I'm drawing the whole thing in 2D first, then dragging the walls up from the 2D floor plan. I just did these few to show what I'm doing. Once the whole house is done, the extension will be done on another layer (quite possibly the whole house will be re-done on another layer actually, as I'll be moving walls around so it will probably be easier).
I'm copying from a plan from the local council, which the house is actually a mirror of and a wardrobe is in a different place. But it'll be close enough to start getting ideas down.
oh; purchase went unconditional today, so we're definitely getting it Also, IRL my name is Nigel, hence the title.
No pretty pictures as I'm flat out moving stuff into storage this weekend (staying with my parents from tonight luckily), but we just found out we can bring settlement forward to 30th June yay! Which means I might get to paint a few more rooms before carpet goes in, as the carpet guys are busy for a few weeks. Anyways, quite stoked
Bedrooms up left side. Hall, bathroom, toilet, laundry up middle. Lounge, Kitchen(+Dining?) on right. 90mĀ² floor area apparently, hence why we want to extend.
Now considering options, this is roughly the size we're thinking, just working out how we're going to arrange the rooms inside. Top left becomes master bedroom, ensuite etc., Top right becomes lounge, dining, kitchen in middle still. Hmmmm.
Won't be a massive house, but will be very comfortable. We looked through and measured up the rooms on Tuesday, and decided we're ripping up the lino, carpet and all the wallpaper. Going to paint the walls and new carpet etc, new curtains. Stretching the budget but it seriously needs it. Hoping to get most done within 3 weeks so we can be living there when the kids start their new school (at the start of next term). I was hoping to get some final sort of plan drawn up tomorrow evening, now that I have better measurements - but I'm going out tomorrow and am away for the weekend... so realistically I might not get back onto it for a few weeks now, due to the current stuff to do.
Soā¦ weāve now been living in our house for 4 weeks (YAY!)
Time for another update.
All rooms painted top to bottom, doors are still to paint, and some to trim the bottom as tight on the new carpet.
Oh yeah, carpet is in woohoo!
Kitchen is in - half the area is a work in progress still, but made the second-hand units fit along one wall with the oven and fridge.
Shower is in, vanity is still sitting there waiting for me to connect plumbingā¦ probably this week.
Exterior walls we decided to insulate and put up new plasterboard, so that was an extra we hadnāt planned on doing but am glad we did. Itās noticeable And yeah, painted ourselves as stated above.
So weāre pretty comfortable now, from what was a fairly shite condition house.
Now on to the garage!
We wanted to make a space in the front for an office, so if either of us ends up working for ourselves we have somewhere. We also wanted a toilet in it, so if Iām working on something and filthy, then I donāt need to come into the house. Oh, itās 9 metres wide, 10 metres deep, and the sectional door is 2.5m high so I can fit a van in if I get one (itās on the cards). Stud height is 2.7m.
I just had to draw up some sketches so the garage people can do the plans for us and submit to local council for permit.
So I thought Iād share here too. Iāll try and update as the build progresses.
Bit of an update, I havenāt been on the forum for a bit and have done a few things. House is still unfinished interior renovation, but is āmostlyā done (needs things like scotia putting up, final paint in bathroom etc). Other things take priority. Trees have come down in back yard where shed will be going, one trunk (of 5) split off in the wind and crashed down, missing all the neighbourās houses and our current little shed (which I was actually hoping itād hit), and that weekend my brother came around and helped cut down the remaining trunks.
Iāve spent the last couple of weeks after work cleaning up the mess between rain (itās winter down here).
I need to pull down the current shed, get surveyors in to plot boundary and datum points for height of floor etc (holy shit thatās expensive), and get the stumps out and scrape off and hard fill for doing the concrete floor. I feel I may have under-budgeted but will see how we go.
Shed plan in finalised and weāve paid a deposit, just waiting to get building permit in order before we order it as I donāt need it sitting around until Iām ready to put it up.
Oh, pretty much the entire left side will be wifeās office with bathroom behind that, as she got made redundant again and so weāve set up her business. Which is currently in a portable unit on the front lawn.
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