Renovating Rambles

My poor Dad.

We live in his house. On his property. In the most gorgeous semi rural area.

When he bought this house, it was for Himself, Miss (now) Teen & Myself. 

The day we moved in Dec 2007 

With 4 bedrooms, we had a guest room. 2 living areas meant Dad had his own space and Miss Teen & I had ours. We added a big shed and a pool. It was a dream space for our little family. I loved, and still love, living with my Dad. He loved (for the most part!) having us around too! 

Fast Forward 3 years and suddenly we added (now) Muddled Hubby. 9 months later, Mini Miss, then 3 years later, Mr Moo....

Suddenly our spacious house with a guest room was crowded. There a tantruming noisy, outspoken preschooler. There's a temperamental Teen girl who switches between beautiful and spawn of the devil quicker than you can blink. There's a little baby, who still wakes at night and DEMANDS to be fed! The baby is in with us as we don't want him to share a room with restless Mini Miss, and honestly, have you ever tried to make a teenager share a room with a MUCH younger sibling?

Not going to happen.

Basically, he's been unintentionally crowded out! 

As we told him, we can move out or we can manage with things as they are. When Mr Moo is older, he can share a room with his sister. But I think Dad secretly likes living with us, but he would also like his own space, where he can shut a door and not hear our everyday noise (and it is VERY noisy some days!)

So enter the Granny Flat. Dad researched for several months. Then we settled on a company to build it and signed. That was October last year. Its now March, and we still have a big empty space where a little one bedroom flat should be.

I never knew HOW MUCH effort it was to get one of these things built! I thought, simply choose a company, submit the idea to council, start building. 

Nope. Because we are on our own septic and water supply, we've had to modify them and submit that to council. There's surveyors, engineers, plumbers, concretors. There's kitchen cupboards, appliances, fixtures, fittings, bathrooms, tiles, paint, flooring....windows, doors, pathways, paving......it just goes on and on! 

Thankfully, I THINK we will see building FINALLY commence next month. Once its built, bring on the fun stuff. 

In coming months I am going to learn how to paint rooms, lay pavers and concrete. Then, once Dad is settled, we start on our own house. 

We have to move children, decorate and design REAL bedrooms, not makeshift spaces they live in sometimes. We have to paint more walls, maybe lay new carpet, or at least, cover some old carpet with rugs for now. We will suddenly have 2 living areas to spread out in.

So, as well Homeschooling posts, in the next 12 months, I will no doubt post to brag about my renovation skills.....and also lament about my MANY renovation fails! And no doubt, I will spend entirely too much time on Pinterest (like I don't already!).

I hope you will join me along the way.

Feel to check out my Pinterest HERE. Its where i get A LOT of my homeschool ideas as well as, well, everything!