Masters Home Improvement

How does a family of four survive a massive renovation? I have no idea but I’m about to find out! I’m planning to transform our rundown shack into a dream home, and I’ve decided to document it all on my very first blog. Meet me, PJ, with my hubby Frank and our kids, Sam and Ella – welcome to our story.

It’s lift-off for our demolition – dust is flying, walls are collapsing, and we’re loving it!

7 February 2012

First of all, I have to apologise for my rantings in the blog a couple of weeks ago. I just read it back, and realised how cranky I was! I’m blaming it on lack of sleep and bad weather. But now, after a week of reasonable weather (not stunning but no major storms), the kids are back at primary school (better than Christmas in my book), Frank’s back at high school (as a maths teacher) and I’ve finally had a chance to calm down and make the house run like clockwork.

It will have to work smoothly if we’re gonna live through this six-month reno. Luckily, I only work three days a week at the library, and I don’t have to start til 10am, so I’ve still got time to give the builders some advice (ha ha) first thing in the morning. (My trick? Make them all jam and toast for a late brekkie, and then the boss Jeff has to listen to me and answer any difficult questions!)

So, back to the important news … things have finally picked up – BIG TIME! I’m now constantly searching through boxes in our living room, coughing up dust and screaming when I stand on splinters. How good is that?!

It all kicked off about a week ago, after Jeff and his building team had sorted out the other house with some storm damage. I wasn’t quite expecting them to show up so early. In fact, I was in the bathroom washing my hair when four big muscly men stomped into the house.

Don’t panic though – the boys didn’t have to cop any nudity on the first day. Frank opened the door and warned them not to go upstairs. And believe me, they had no intention anyway!

Jeff, his second-in-charge and two young apprentices arrived with all the gear – some jackhammers, a bobcat, heaps of tools, etc. It was young Sam’s idea of heaven. Maybe he did learn something when he grew up watching Bob The Builder every morning!

Within an hour, the boys had built a make-do ramp from the bottom of the roofless garage to bring all the equipment up onto the main house level. It was amazing watching their strength and their technical skills. If they work like this, I reckon the whole job could virtually be done in about a week!

While it was perfectly organised outside, it was like a madhouse inside. Sam and Ella preferred watching all the action than getting dressed for school. And Frank was even worse. I finally got the kids off to the bus stop up the road, and Frank took the car. After that, it meant that I could get the best spot behind the window for perfect viewing!

After a couple of hours, they started bringing all the tools inside, putting together extension cords, and then … as they warned me … I needed to be either upstairs or (preferably) a few streets away. At that point, our much-loved home started to become a demolition zone.

The noise was incredible and I started worrying a little if the bedroom floors upstairs were solid enough. After all, the balcony has always been a little wobbly. Some of the dust came into the bedroom despite the plastic sheeting – I even needed to use my asthma spray after a few hours.

And I have to admit, I wasn’t quite prepared for this fortuitous day. When I settled in upstairs in the main bedroom, I hadn’t grabbed a radio or Ella’s MP3 or my laptop. At first, I felt a little trapped; it was just like being stuck in a bunker for the whole day.

Luckily, I had a stack of books and magazine in the bedside table (just like the Scouts, a librarian is always well prepared!). And of course, it was full of interior design stuff, so it helped me work on the interior’s ‘mood board’.

Mind you, with the sounds of drilling and bashing downstairs, it wasn’t the most soothing experience.

I managed to come downstairs every hour or so. I kept offering the boys tea or coffee, but I was really busting to see how it was going. The only catch was that in the rush, I lost my digital camera somewhere in the house – probably in one of those thousand boxes (hmm, is it in one that was scribbled D for digital or C for Camera?).....

Keep up with PJ and her family renovation exploits with an update every few weeks.