# Forum More Stuff Go to Whoa!  Our Cal-bung reno in Melb north

## jcmc

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster. 
About 8 months ago we bought our project house in Melbourne's inner north. Its a very tired Californian bungalow that was built some time between WW1-2. It had been subjected to a few very questionable improvements over the years and pretty much a total lack of maintenance. By july last year our dream of renovating one of these old beauties had turned into reality (how confronting that reality can be when you first move in!) 
Obligatory RE pic.   
A few interior pics showing the general condition when we first took possession. Note that in the 70's a previous owner had destroyed all the plaster/ornate ceilings in the bedrooms to instal a false ceiling at 2.4m. Apparently this was a somewhat common thing to do to reduce heating costs. The place has also been restumped on concrete piers (in the 90s I guess) and seems to have been executed reasonably well, though the resulting damage to the lathe plaster had never been repaired.    
A pic of the original garage. I knocked this down but I like to think I was really only assisting gravity!  :Biggrin:    
Also found this tea tin when I was pulling the old ceilings down:   
We were immediately drawn to the facade (love the french front doors with really nice bevelled glass) & flexible layout, but the presentation of the place was enough to discourage most of the other people that looked at it. We inspected it multiple times while it was for sale, and were amused by everyone that walked into the place and then walked straight back out again.  :No:   
In the time that we've owned it, we've got a few jobs out of the way: 
- Replaced all the roofing sheetmetal & gutters
- Replaster 3x bedrooms
- Floors sanded, stained & polished
- Repair/replace the external cladding
- Fitted insulation into the walls/ceiling
- Replaced a fair bit of dodgy wiring / rewire the original fuse box with modern circuit breakers & RCD
- Lots of tidying up & fencing repairs/replacements
- Rebuilt the porch/veranda, lifted & straightened the pillar 
Finishing off at the moment: 
- Painting the outside of the place
- Building a bay window in the dining room
- Earthworks for double garage foundation/drainage 
About to get started on: 
- Earthworks to correct level/drainage to the front
- Front fence (will probably go vinyl/poly pickets)
- Double garage (steel framed with truline concrete boards)
- Replastering a wall in the dining room (to marry up the bay window to the existing plaster), new period cornices 
Heres a few select pics of things as we've done them along the way "colourbond moments".     
Writing this up has reminded me that I'm a terrible photographer and need to take some more recent pics. 
We've had to do a room by room approach to most things as we are living in the place. Our general plan is to restore the "main" part of the house, and when that is complete knock down the lean-to kitchen/laundry at the rear and extend back by 8m for kitchen/living and add a master/ensuite on top of the new part.

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## davegol

nice work! 
I like the colour scheme .. very similar to ours  :Biggrin:   http://www.renovateforum.com/f176/il...u-mine-107217/

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## ChocDog

Thats looking great JCMC! Great progress. Just saw your comments in my thread. Too funny - small world! Where did you guys end up buying? Same suburb? 
Also, was there any issues with rising damp around that fireplace/plaster work? It's another one of the joys I need to deal with shortly.

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