# Forum More Stuff Go to Whoa!  Full reno on Cal Bungalow in inner Melbourne

## ChocDog

Hi guys, 
Thought it was about time to actually contribute something to this forum. I have been lurking around for a long time now but only registered last year.  
Anyway, I and my partner in crime are in the midst of renovating a house we bought last year. We were looking around for quite some time to find something with the following: 
* inner north (8km radius)
* 400sqm min
*3 bed (or 2+ study)
* North facing
* free standing
* non-brick structure
* big kitchen
* requiring full reno
* no recent renos (thought could be drive the price up but actually were worthless to us as we would re-do)
* no structural changes required (i.e. no moving off walls, extensions, etc)  re-stumping ok though
* garage or at least a big shed (I have lots of toys + tools) 
Bottom line, we wanted a place that was looking tired, needed a full reno including kitchen + bathroom, but minimising the amount that a builder would need to be involved (hence no extensions or wall removals). Im keen and capable of doing as much as possible myself and smart enough to know to use qualified tradies when required. Im no builder but learnt a lot (and done a fair bit) over the years from my many hours on building sites with my grandfather (who is) + uncle. Im an engineer by background so spend my days designing and building stuff, enjoy it and Id like to think it suits me. Im also a big believer of doing things once and doing things properly. 
Anyway, we finally found and bought a cal bungalow. Its in the inner north of Melbourne and suffered from a lack of maintenance and improvements made by the self-styled handyman of the family that lived here for the last 40 years.  
The previous owners had an obvious love of concrete and filled up every spare space with it! Except for the huge vege garden which is brilliant and well leave in place (probably reduce it in size somewhat). They unfortunately concreted the complete perimeter of the house up to the weather boards which allowed a direct path for moisture to get into the sub-floor. Coupled with the fact that the sub-floor already had stuff all clearance to the ground, this has ended up destroying a large portion of the sub-floor. Mainly the complete west side of the house. It was pretty obvious during the inspection as, although very little of the sub-floor could be seen (because of the concrete), what you could see was rotten bearers pretty much sitting on the dirt or concrete. It was obvious that a significant re-stumping/sub-floor rebuild would be required.  
Other than that, the place had good potential: 3m+ ceilings, 2 good size bedrooms + 1 small one/study, decent size back yard (for inner Melbourne!), north facing, open plan living (looked like walls had already been opened up) and a big kitchen. They had extended at some stage. Including a new kitchen and laundry. This had been placed on a slab at the back. A somewhat dodgy slab that looked rather un-even and would require attention  more about this later! 
Plus there were lean-tos upon lean-tos making up a tardis like shed. I still dont know how much shed volume there is, but once I (essentially) pull it down and rebuild it as one structure it will be plenty big enough! Oh, and they were nice enough to enclose the back of the house with 3 walls (using the original external weatherboard clad wall as the 4th) and a roof (using whatever odds and sods of materials they had horded over the years) and try to class it as a sunroom.  Been handy for us to essentially live in whilst the floors have been ripped up though. 
My theory is there is no point mucking around so we moved in on the Saturday and the stumpers started on the Monday. Ill start posting some before photos, and were we are currently at if I can work it out.

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## ChocDog

Some photos from RE agent ad:

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## ChocDog

These would be some more realistic photos!

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## ChocDog

The sub-floor was looking pretty ordinary when we had a look at the inspections so we booked in a re-stumper to start as soon as we moved in. 
As mentioned it was a big job due to poor maintenance and dodgy ‘workmanship’ of the previous owners as well as dealing with a dodgy kitchen extension. 
They had to replace about 120m’s of bearers and joists (and some wall plates) due to the rotting from concreting up to the edge of the subfloor. This was essentially the complete west side of the property. 
There’s only about 150mm clearance under our place in parts. So they needed to remove floor boards (and carpet on top) for access. No drama, I need to pull them all up anyhow. We are currently laying sub-floor insulation followed by yellow-tongue on top (for the complete house). On top of the yellow tongue we will lay carpet in the 3 bedrooms (west side of house) and then re-lay the 150x21mm Baltic pine (I think?) boards in the hallway and east side of house.  
At some stage (around 1990 we think based on a date marked on the slab) they owners extended the house for the 2nd time. But this time they did it with a good ‘ol concrete slab. Bless them. They then put a new kitchen and bathroom/laundry on this. 
Based on the step ups from the original parts of the house into the kitchen we all thought they had slabbed the whole kitchen (the 3.6x6.4m area on the plan). This was a concern cause there was a reasonably fall (and unevenness) in the (tiled) slab  which I reckon was going to be greater than what self-leveler could handle. I had looked into the cost of slab jacking etc – didn’t look good!
Anyway, long story short, we found out that when they first extended the house into the area that is now the 3.6x6.4 kitchen, they did it correctly with stumps, bearers, joists and floor at the existing floor height. This extension was probably about 3m long (of the now 6.4m total extension). What they then did was lay a very dodgy slab (2-3” thick on broken tiles, loose dirt, etc) to extend the first extension from 3m to give an overall room length of 6.4m. And at a finished height about 25-30mm higher than the existing floor height! No worries, lets just pack up the original extension to the same height as the slab with heaps of layers of masonite, tiling adhesive, and any other floor sheeting they could find… Plus when I started pulling the kitchen out there were sign of concrete cancer/flaking on the slab… 
So, we made the choice to get the guys  to demo out the slab of the kitchen area (leaving the bathroom and laundry slab). They then rebuilt this correctly with stumps, bearers and joists.  
Plus they also demo’d out about a foot of the concrete paths on the west and east sides of the house. We’ll pull the rest of the concrete out from the path,  back and front yards next summer. And they also demo’d the front concrete (double slab – did I mention the previous owners obvious love of concrete?!) veranda + brickwork and re-built this with bearers + joists. I just need to deck it at some stage… Oh, and they also had to remove the remnants of an old fireplace that was left in the main bedroom. This was also helping out with the rot issue in all of the wood (as some of the sub-floor came to rest on this over time).   
So it was a pretty big job in the end, but at least we now have a solid foundation to work with.  
I wont comment on cost, as ours was a little outside of the standard re-stumping job box…

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## paddyjoy

Looking good, keep the photos coming!

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## Uncle Bob

Wow, you guys are like the man with a wheelbarrow, you've got it all in front of you. (In other words, a big job).
Looking forward to see the end product.

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## ChocDog

Thanks guys, yeah there is definitely a fair bit of work needed!

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## ChocDog

So the stormwater system is not that kosher. Old school terracotta and then improved by the previous owner. Improved as in, lets run some external pipe on top of the concrete paths, patch it into the original stormwater (somewhere  I havent found it yet!) and then concrete over that pipe to make it look schmicko Oh, and at least give the water a chance to get into the stormwater pipe entry well shape a spoon drain into some more concrete in the backyard. Bl$%dy concrete Add that into the equation with multiple downpipes placed in random locations on the multiple sheds, draining onto the concrete back yard and, well, its just cr#p.  And they seem to be clogged full of stuff  Im guessing a fair bit of dirt and debris has wandered down that open mouth over the years. 
Plus I loathe concrete everywhere or external pipework work, so its time to ditch the current system and get the stormwater slung under the house (lucky the house is now re-stumped and no longer basically sits on its guts on the dirt) and then we can rip out the rest of the concrete paths. At some stage 
I have a mate who is a plumber so Im doing/done the grunt work of running and hanging the pipe around the house, and hell finish it off tapping it back into the original stormwater at the perimeter of the house. Have run a U setup along the W, S and E sides of the property. Done the W and S runs, but need to finish off the E run (including running around a fireplace foundation). As mentioned, there isnt a huge amount of clearance under that house, so getting the required drop on the pipe run was only just possible. 
My mate will also re-run the gas line under the house. Its currently attached to the weatherboards with multiple runs tapped of it. It looks pretty ordinary Same with the water pipes. That should start happening this week. Or maybe next, depends how much I get sorted this week. 
(the debris sitting in front of the added on pipe are remnants from the stumpers cutting up the path  its cleaned up now though).

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## ChocDog

The photos below show the remaining part of the wall plate from when the original owners had part of the partition walls (b/w the living and dining rooms) knocked out to open up the rooms. This has occurred in a total of 3 places (b/w the original back of the house and where the kitchen was added on plus the same location as this but in the hall wall). 
Obviously the section that has been cut down (butchered?) needs to go so that I can get a continuous span of yellow tongue through the open area. I plan to cut it out. 
From a structural point of view I cant see the cut down section doing anything useful (the wall plate that will remain is well supported). But I might ask for comment in the Structural forum to ensure Im not missing something.   http://www.renovateforum.com/f76/cut...emoval-109180/

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## JB1

Good work, looks like a massive reno. 
Did you buy the property knowing of the subflooring (and no doubt other) issues?

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## ChocDog

> Did you buy the property knowing of the subflooring (and no doubt other) issues?

  Cheers mate. I dont think its too big a reno, no walls being moved, etc. Just new kitchen + bathroom and then cosmetics. Does seem like a 'big' job while all the floors are up and we're trying to get the house structure in good order though! 
But yeah, it was pretty obvious the floor was completely rotten on one side of the house. The situation with what the story was with the kitchen 'slab' was more of a gamble, but hasn't turned out too bad. More cost than I was hoping for, but such is life. And I needed a bit of a project as I'm not playing with cars and motorbikes as much as I used too - so this is keeping me happily away from being bored and idle!

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## dr renovator

That's not a reno...that's a rebuild!!  
Good luck, I'll subscribe and follow your progress.

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## jcmc

Pretty sure my partner and I looked at your place before we bought our place last year. As I recall we passed on it due to the "improvements".  :Smilie:  
We had a very similar criteria to yours as well. 
Since we have got started on our own project we have often found ourselves lamenting that the original owners hadn't spent the effort/money on maintenance instead of half arsed improvements... I think the best advice anyone could be given about buying a place to renovate is to get one thats as original as possible.

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## ChocDog

That cracks me up! I just looked at your thread and immediately though "whoa, looks like your place was in worse condition that ours!". You're place is starting to look great. We're a fair way of polishing floor boards and painting... Probably about time I posted an update then.

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## ChocDog

Have spent a fair bit of recent time getting the sub floor preped ready for yellow tongue and sub-floor insulation. Although the place has now been re-stumped, it doesnt mean the sub-floor was great. 100 odd years have meant that he hardwood joists are no longer spot on and need a bit of improvement here and there (planning/packing). 1 thing I do now know is that 100yr old hardwood is f'ing hard! Nails will often snap as opposed to coming out...  
Also needed to throw some extra joists in around the place to support some of the butt joins of the yellow tongue that wouldn't play ball and line up nicely for me. 
Plus had to also remove about 14sqm of tiles (and associated layers of  underlay) before I could get the hallway boards up. Fun, not (and  wearing a P2 mask on 30+ deg days makes it worse - just had it off when  the missus was taking a photo). Something a little strange about using a  rake in your hallway...

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## ChocDog

Another job that needed to get done before the floor could start being laid was some wiring:
1. Ethernet cabling (mainly used for a couple of home theatre pc's in a couple of rooms)
2. New aerial cabling (points werent where I wanted them and it was some pretty average  looking RG59)
3. In wall speaker cabling - including a run to outside
4. 4 core wiring to go along with the speaker cable run going to outside - to be used for a IR repeater (eventually...) 
All AV/network cabling has been done at subfloor level and all 240v is roof level - so no concerns there. All AV/ethernet wall points are separated from 240V via at least one stud (AS/ACIF S009  was followed). Obviously, due to the cabling rules of Oz, I had a sparky mate guide and supervise me rough it in and he then terminated it. 
The AV setups are for 2 rooms. The main bed room has some small Canton speakers mounted to the wall via their brackets whilst in the living room the speakers are going to sit in 4 pine wine boxes mounted to the wall. Both rooms have a 7.1 speaker wall plate to clean things up. And the speakers are hooked up to the in-wall wiring by little wall plates with 2 speaker connections on them.  Just need to run banana terminated cables direct to these wall plates. I'll do this once the floors are down properly.

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## ChocDog

Because we hate the cold and wasting energy (not to mention waiting for heaters to heat up a house etc), we will do as much as is financially viable to insulate the house as much as possible. So, although not a huge gain to be had, we have/are insulating the sub-floor while all the floor is up. 
Based on Melbourne weather conditions (dealing with radiant heat loss through the floor), and that our joists are not uniformly spaced we went with the concertina foil batts. Other options (the rigid polystyrene panels) would have been annoying to install. The Concertina batts are pretty simple to install. The first room was painful with one person trying to support the bottom of the panel whilst the other stapled them to the joist (they are pretty flexible). I eventually said stuff that, got some standard packing tape (used when installing normally glass/poly batts) and ran that under the joists to provide some support to them while installing. After that it was an easy 1 person job  one for the missus that is! I needed to get onto laying some Yellow Tongue down so that we had some resemblance of a floor 
Cost us around $500-600 to do the whole house (would need to double check my receipts). 
Theyre a Melbourne based company. The owner is more than happy to answer questions  just be aware it might take you about 45min to get off the phone after only wanting to ask a couple of questions! Concertina FOIL BATTS - foil insulation - main page 
They dont seem to be hugely available. I got them from Timber & Builder Hardware Supplies in Australia  Lamcal.com.au in Heidelberg who will sell the standard (450mm) packs for $75.

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## goldie1

That should keep you toasty!  Your wifes safety foot ware is a bit of a worry   :Rolleyes:

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## Uncle Bob

> That should keep you toasty!  Your wifes safety foot ware is a bit of a worry

  Samoan safety shoes  :Wink:

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## ChocDog

> Your wifes safety foot ware is a bit of a worry

  
Umm, no comment! In her defense (and mine!) the Aussie Safety shoe is used when powertools arent running, and nothing exposed/dangerous to walk on - all exposed nails (etc) have been removed from all subfloor and the dirt has been completely cleaned of all debris (because the house had poor subfloor ventilation, I excavated a fair bit of dirt, raked it flat and removed all the crap on it). She's got some boots and I make her wear them when appropriate. 
Yep, hopefully the insulation keeps us toasty. Bit hard at the moment cause there is still a fair bit of 'natural ventilation' occurring!

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## ChocDog

After not really having a floor down for a couple of months, it was great to finally get to put some Yellow Tongue down. Started feeling like things were moving in the right direction! All rooms have either had all the T&G floor boards pulled up, or were in the process of having them removed. We were trying to concentrate on getting 1 room sorted first so that could at least have a sanctuary of sorts while we then did the other rooms. So the main bedroom got done a while ago and weve been slowly working through the other rooms. Although Yellow Tongue is not that pretty, its a hell of a lot better than staring at dirt floors! 
My BIL works for CHH so sorted out my YT for a pretty good price. Went the 1800mm sheets so that I could transport them home in the ute as well as manoeuvre them in the house. There were plenty of times I wish I had the 3600mm sheets because the 1800 sheets just didnt want to play the game and easily align with my joist layouts. Originally started out by cutting the sheets to suits the joists, but got fed up with that pretty quickly so went down the path of installing additional joists/noggins to support the butt joins of the sheets. 3600 sheets would have reduced this greatly, but I definitely recommend using the 1800 sheets for cut in floor installs. Id hate to be constantly trying to manoeuvre the 3600mm sheets around an already built house. Especially the amount I need to move them around to check levels, install insulation etc. Plus @ $6/m for F17 HW (90x45) its not a huge cost at the end of the day and its definitely not a problem having more joists than needed! 
3/4's of the house is now covered, and all the problems sorted (mainly the fact that the originally house + 2 separate extensions were not at the same level and the same story where partition walls were removed) the last  part of the house should be sorted this coming weekend. Then its time to  get the original 150mm Baltic pine boards back down.

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## dominicw

Looks great. Keep up the good work!

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## ChocDog

Hmmm, lifes been pretty frantic the last few months so Ive been a bit slack with updates. Who would have thought that weddings, 4 week honeymoons, renos and a pretty hectic day job would take up so much time 
Anyway, a fair bit has been going on since the last update. Not as much as I would have liked though! Ill try to get up to date with some progress posts. A lot of small fiddley jobs and prep work has been happening with the aim to get to painting stage soon. Floorboards/carpets will go down after the painting. Kitchen designs still havent been finalised (let alone someone contracted for the job). I was hoping to get all the weatherboards replaced and all acres of concrete around the house removed before the end of summer, but well see about that

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## ChocDog

The fun of finding the surprises of dodgyness from the previous owner and his improvements continues! 
Stripping a wall of plasterboard (too many serious cracks to bother patching) a while back I found the following bit of handiwork!     
Theyd gone and put a bigger window (1.9m) in when they renod about 20 years ago. Too much dodgyness to mention; missing studs, extra members added not actually doing anything, but the best is the cantilevered lintel. Im guessing when they put in the longer window they removed the jack studs and just left the original lintel hanging by the lintel studs. Brilliant. 
So what was going to just be a re-sheeting job turned out to be a wall rebuild job. Calculated lintel size came out to 150x75 / 190x35 as suitable.  Ended up using a 190x42 LVL15 as it was readily available.       
The plasterboard is now hung and partly stopped up. I had purposely placed an additional stud around 650mm out from the left wall and then had a couple of butt joins over this as the wardrobe was going to run into the wall at this point so no stress. After the job was all done, it was suggested that the wardrobe might be better off on a different wall. Great! Wish Id know that earlier as I would have used 4.2m sheets (the room is 3.7m) instead (3m sheets in the ute are doable, 4.2s are interesting!  plaster shop is only 500m away so not to bad).   
So now that the wardrobe is going elsewhere it means the plasterboard on the wall on the left also had to come down and be replaced. It was in pretty rough condition but I had patched it up and would have been fine hidden in the wardrobe and most of it covered by wardrobe shelving. Well pack out that wall (nothing is straight in the place!) and re-sheet it this weekend.

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## ChocDog

Right. We need a couple of built in wardrobes built and kitted out. The plan was Ill build them, sheet them, have our plasterer stop them up etc, get doors and internals built to our design and then either Id install or have the suppliers do the install. 
So the one in the 2nd bedroom is progressing well. After a bit of a false start as to where the wardrobe was going to go, I framed it all up the other day. One of the walls didnt have any noggins, so had a bit of a day while I ripped into the wall and put a couple in so the end stud of the wardrobe had something to attach to. I didnt bother sheeting it since our plasterer is so bloody quick I just let him sheet it up as well  within the minute I had the last nail in he already had 2 sheets hanging. Money well spent he is. Dimensions are 600mm x 2400mm internal with a 2100mm(W) x 2700mm(H) opening (we have 3.3m ceilings).

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## paddyjoy

Looking good, have been burnt before by previous owners "improvements" so I feel your pain. 
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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## ChocDog

> Looking good, have been burnt before by previous owners "improvements" so I feel your pain. 
> Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

  Cheers mate. Your project also looks pretty interesting!

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## ChocDog

A lot of time has been spent plastering and prepping walls. There were a lot of huge cracks, etc from the restumping that needed fixing (plus dents, knocks, picture hook holes, removal of picture rail damage, etc, etc) so I concentrated on that and some simple jobs and got a pro into do some of the bigger and more skilful jobs like square setting a hallway opening that wasnt square/straight/plumb in any plane, sheeting up the fireplace (at 45 deg), external angles, etc. I reckon my plastering skills arent too bad now, but considering how quick this bloke is compared with me (Ill turn my back for a couple of minutes and hes cut, hung and screwed up a couple of sheets in that time  it would take me an hour for that!) Im just going to get him to do all the other jobs I was going to do (the built in wardrobes and a bit more finishing work).  
 BEFORE:      
AFTER:

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## ChocDog

So the fireplace started of looking like this:     
Pretty rough. Mantel piece was ugly, the surrounding plasterboard showed signs of rising damp, etc. The hearth had to go. It was also ugly (maroon tiles to match the maroon curtains), not level and not at the right height for the final floor height. Plus that ugly wall mounted A/C needed to go. Its going to be >30deg here the next few days so we might regret that... 
So the plaster needed to be ripped down and replaced, the rising down sorted out, a new hearth built and tiled, and a new mantel piece put in. The fireplace wont be used again - just decorative.   
Pulling down the plaster allowed the cause of the rising damp to be checked properly. Moisture readings on the fireplace and hearth support were now ok, but it was evident there was a previous issue. Water used to be able to get under the sub-floor and pool around this area previously due to a love of concrete from the previous owners and blocked up stormwater drains. A bit of effort has gone into making sure that water run off under the house wont be a problem anymore. Plus there was some remnants of 100+ yrs of mortar/brick fretting dust pooled behind the back of the affected plasterboard which wouldnt have been helping. To be on the safe side, we cleaned everything up, replaced the plasterboard, replaced the worst of the fretted bricks and battened out the fireplace with furring channel so that there was an additional gap b/w the new plasterboard and brickwork. 
The new hearth needed to extend beyond the original brick based one and onto the yellow tongue. So I dug out the original (loose bricks, etc), and laid a new concrete slab to bring it up to the same level as the YT. I still need to put down an final substrate for the tiles to go on. Need to bring it up about 24mm so it sits a little proud of the final baltic pine floor board finished height. I didnt want the slab to extend onto the YT area for a couple of reasons - mainly that it would be traversing 2 different structures (the masonry fireplace and the wood sub-floor).  
Progress:          
Nearly complete. Just need to place tile substrate,  lay the tiles and mount the mantel permanently.

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## ChocDog

Ok, its been a while between updates. I should throw some photos up when I have time. So, where are we? 
Painting is pretty much complete (except trim and original hardwood doors that we have stored away). The kitchen has been re-framed (it had about a 50mm run-out from square in the corners), and completely re-plastered. Used this opportunity to throw in a cavity sliding door as well. The ceiling was laser levelled (was about 100mm out end to end due to it being an extension onto and extension). The cabinet maker has been signed up but still about 8 weeks away (hes a pretty busy one man band). Lights have been ordered and most received (a couple are old vintage light bowls that are getting restored for us). The wardrobe internals and doors have finally been installed (and the amount of excitement we have about having a place to store stuff again is bloody embarrassing!). The long saga about what we are doing with our floors as finally been decided. Ill give some more details once they go down and we have some pics of the finished job, but basically the original Baltic pine (150x22) is getting ditched and replaced with re-claimed tas-oak boards (133x19) that is getting new tongues and grooved remachined into them. Not a cheap solution but will give us the old, aged wood like we are after. The new Klip-lok roof went on the flat-roofed rear of the place (the rest is gable with tiles) to replace the pink painted corrugated iron that was full of holes (Im guessing the previous owner stole it from the dump..). New insulation and sarking went in at the same time. Rinnai 26 instantaneous hot water heater has been installed and I no longer have to worry about running out of hot water! 
And most importantly, ducted gas heating gets installed next week. Brilliant! Melb is starting to get cold. 
Where to next? Choose some carpet for the other rooms. The day I no longer need to look at yellow tongue cant come soon enough! Then its time to start ripping off all the old weatherboards, insulate, and replace with new. Then paint the outside. And insulate the roof cavity properly. Then start ripping out up the beautiful concrete that has been bestowed on this place and landscape. So, should all be down in a couple of weeks. Right.

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## Ourbuild

Awesome work on those floors guys, very detailed! You must be proud of how the renos are coming along, great job! 
Btw - Your site looks very tidy in all your photos, i like that allot, and im sure your tradesmen do as well... 
All the best with it.

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## ChocDog

Yet again, another belated update. A lots happened, but there is still a lot to get done. Sounds like a common story 
Anyway, I guess the main wins have been the floors down, the painting 99% complete, new doors + jambs hung, skirts and archs on and the kitchen in. finally! Other than that, a few other rooms pulled down, re-framed and re-plastered, plus the lights in. And another 6m2 skipped filled. 
Happy days. Went with a few(!) different tones of grey and then white skirts + arcs + ceilings.    
The plaster and paint (man they loved to smoke inside!) in the back part of the hallway and the smaller bedroom/study looked pretty rough, so I just ripped it all down and started again. Found the, now expected, dodgy brothers wall framing method, so ripped all that down and re-framed the partition wall to the bathroom. I reckon there was only 2 studs running uninterrupted from bottom to top plate. The rest just looked like a maze you put a guinnea pig through All sorted now though. Ceilings insulated (in this part of the house  a lean to add on) and I also insulated the wall b/w the bathroom to, hopefully, reduce bathroom noise coming though.    
The photos of the lights dont do them justice, after months of searching we finally found a couple of bowls that we liked (probably made in the 30s and 50s they think) at Antique Lighting Specialists Australia | Antique Light Co in Richmond. They then built them up with suitable hardware and had the hardware nickel plated. Not the cheapest but they look brilliant. Ive also got a fetish for exposed filament Edison style globes, so we have 3 different ones of these hung naked in the dining room (Edison Light Globes - Industrial 19th Century Thomas Edison inspired globes, cable and fittings ). Again, struggled to get a good photos of these.   
We were pretty lucky with the doors. One disappointing thing when we bought the house was that all the original doors had been replaced at some stage with standard (and in very bad condition) ply doors. As the months went by we got to know our neighbour really well and he had just finished a complete renovation of their place. They were doing a more modern reno so were replacing the solid 6 panel style original doors. As luck would have it, our 2 houses were built at the same time (20s) by the same builder, so they were the perfect match for our place. Win. Needed to trim all the doors and put up new jambs to suit (no drama cause the original jambs were beaten to hell and not plumb/level so had to replace anyway) and with the new door hardware on, the place is starting to look as it should. I still need to give them some TLC and new paint, but that can wait! Havent got a photo of the doors (Ill wait till theyre cleaned up and painted first) but heres a photo of the door handle were using dodgily sitting there. Looks good.  
We went with a stepped profile for the skirts and arcs (180 + 90mm), and am really happy with the way these have come up. Not happy with the amount of effort I needed to go through to pack out the walls to get them straight/flush so that the skirts and archs sat correctly though. The result was worth it, but bloody annoying   
More rubbish - kitchen and a small bedroom. Gone now luckily...

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## ChocDog

Finally and what a ball ac$%... 
The original plan had been to re-use the original (150x22) Baltic pine boards. So a lot of effort went into pulling them up carefully, de-nailing them and storing them for close to a year. But Ive got to admit I really dont like BP boards! Plus I didnt think theyd do the place justice because they were in pretty rough shape and the face width had shrunk over nearly 100 yrs so they were anything from 150mm to 145mm.   
 But I do like old boards with feature/character. So after a lot of mucking around and false starts, what we did was source some re-claimed tas-oak boards (133x19) from a demolished house, get new tongues and grooved remachined into them and the faces skimmed. Final profile was 125mmx18mm. Not the cheapest solution but the end result is the old, aged wood with nice features look we were after. And, a brilliant fit/finish that I wouldnt otherwise get.   
The original plan was to lay the old BP boards myself and then get a pro into sand and coat. I even went and bought a shiny new Bostitch secret nailer for the job. The floors are down now, and its still sitting in its box never used. Never got to use it. Damn. After talking with a few floor guys and seeing other peoples thoughts on here, I knew I could do it myself but would get a better end result getting a pro to put them down, and more importantly, quicker! And quicker is very important at the moment  weekends just seem to vanish at the moment! The cost involved vs the time it would take me was a no-brainer. It just wasnt worth doing it myself. I was going to use Dusty (from here) but hes based down south of Melb, and were inner north, plus he was flat out with other jobs so unfortunately that wasnt going to work. Luckily he put me onto another crew (son+father) he knew and theyve ended up doing a great job.   
The floors have been down for a while now, but only got coated on the weekend. Theyve come up brilliantly  if you ask me! We went with Synteko Classic in matt finish. The photos still show it with a bit of a gloss sheen to it, but in the flesh it has this great flat finish to it with just a little lustre. The photos over-accentuate the warm/orange colour, in the flesh its a lot blonder than this. The colours/features of the timber have come up great. Happy days.

----------


## ChocDog

And finally, the most important room in the house for us as we love to cook. Were lucky we had a big room to play with, one of the main reasons behind buying this place. It was always planned to use as much of this room as possible for bench space, so we could both work in here. 
Its had a bit of a journey this room, from its original start as a very tired looking 80s kitchen:   
 to getting its rubbish slab ripped out of it (no reo, just a few tiles and cans) and getting rebuilt with joists/bearers:   
being used as my workshop while the rest of the place got sorted:  
and then getting the walls/ceiling  ripped down to re-frame it (it was at least 70mm out of square), insulated, replastered and floor laid:   
 Had a couple of false starts regarding the look we wanted, but I am really happy with the end result. We wanted to integrate a fair bit of timber into the room but without it becoming a log cabin sort of look. We were originally going to go for a timber veneer on the doors, but I also wanted some re-cycled timber in the room. But with timber floors we were concerned it was going to look like a tree house. Change in plans. 
In the end we went with a simple flat face white 2-pac door and concrete (oyster) ceaserstone benchtop. I got my recycled wood fetish satisfied by  sourcing some great looking re-cycled messmate (30& 40mm) from Urban Salvage Urban Salvage - Recycled / Reclaimed Timber Flooring, Floorboards, Melbourne, Building Materials, Second Hand, Wood.  and getting this laminated into various panels to be used a features around the place. Here is a couple of pics of the timber while I was cutting to length and desired layouts before delivering it to the guys that did the panel lamination.    
Instead of going for the usual stone waterfall return at the end of the bench we used a panel here as the end of the bench.  We did the same thing with the last panel of the cabinetry (where the fridge goes as well) and opposite this (where another pantry sits) our cabinet maker turned a few of the panels into a great looking bookshelf. I love all the exposed nail holes with the oxidisation around them. All the panels have been oiled with Danish Oil (from Organoil). Down the track 2 of my wine fridges will sit in the back corner of the kitchen and I plan to make some (simple) cabinetry for these out some of the old hardwood joists/studs removed from the house. This job is on the back burner though 
A word about our cabinet maker. Bl00dy brilliant is all I can say! I found him by asking around a few of the re-cycled timber merchants. He is a one-man band and has an amazing attention to details and pride for producing a quality job. Wouldnt even take a deposit for the job  thats how confident he is about his work. He wouldnt let me pay a cent until it was all installed. Seriously. Plus he was similar in price to the other cabinet makers we talked with (but actually cheaper because he used all top of the line Blumm hardware  - full carcass draws though, no tandembox stuff). Stone guys were great as well. Ill drop another thread into the kitchen area giving both these guys a recommendation in case anyone is looking for a quality cabinet maker and stone mason in Melbourne. 
All in all, Im pretty impressed with the way its come together and its brilliant to have a great space to cook in once again. It took a lot longer than I hoped it would though! And there is still more stuff to be finished though before its complete: painting around the bulkheads, hang 2 pendants over the bench. mount the rangehood, install the 2nd oven, replace the windows, tiling for the splash back, some open shelves made from the same recycled messmate, etc, etc, etc! But for now, Im pretty content.

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## phild01

Hey, where are the ducks! :Sad1:  :Chick:

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## ChocDog

Give me your postal address and i'll send them to you! Nah, sadly the previous owners took all the 'good' stuff with them!

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## paddyjoy

Great job looking awesome. 
Love the lights and the fact you put back in original solid doors, we will be doing the same!

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## ChocDog

Thanks Paddy, its getting there. Not quite an adventurous a project as yours though!

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## OBBob

Nice project ... I'm an inner-Norther too! Some of the early pictures make me shudder as I recall dealing with similar issues.  :Smilie:

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## ChocDog

> Nice project ... I'm an inner-Norther too! Some of the early pictures make me shudder as I recall dealing with similar issues.

  Yeah, definitely been more than a few hidden surprises! I definitely expected a few (it was pretty obvious from stuff that you could see, that there would be stuff you couldnt see...), but its been a real adventure 'uncovering' them. Bit like easter egg hunting as a kid. But nowhere near as enjoyable! 
Inner north? Where? We're right on the boundary of Brunswick East and Coburg (lygon st end).

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## OBBob

We're onto our third in the area (you think we'd learn  :Eek: ) but this one is much less significant than the previous. We're down toward the Northcote-Fairfield border.

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## Ourbuild

Looking impressive guys!! Good luck you found your kitchen joiner by the sounds of it!

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## goldie1

Nice kitchen !!  I have just finished the strip out of a similar place in the SE. Looking forward to mine looking 
as good in 12 months.

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## ChocDog

Thanks Goldie and Ourbuild. Yeah, our cabinet maker is a legend. If you ask me! Its just brilliant having a 'home' again...

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## MR1600

Fantastic looking Kitchen!!!

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## joynz

Hi Choc Dog 
Back in September last year,  you mentioned having tassie oak remachined with new tongue and grooves.   
I was wondering if you could share where  you got this done, and what sort of cost was involved?   
Thank  you 
A

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## ChocDog

Thanks MR1600, we're pretty happy with it. 
Joynz, I'll send you a PM as the I dont want to name the company publicly as they are not someone I would personally recommend. Without a few caveats....

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## joynz

Thanks Choc Dog. 
I  have seen quite a few  wide tassie oak floors in house demo sales but I actually have narrow tassie oak floors. Remachining seems like an option.

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## ChocDog

Happy days.   
Windows arrived the other day. Now just need to get them in. Pretty happy with the way theyve turned out. There is 4 in it total. 1 triple sash bi-fold (with 300mm servery), 2 double hung and 1 casement. All double glazed and low-E glass. Vic ash (tas oak) frames and merbau sill. Good, strong well made looking units. If Im just as impressed once theyre installed, Ill let you know where I got them from in case other people are looking. 
Oh, and just for shauck, this should show as a nice small thumbnail so that your morse code provided internet in Daylesford is not overloaded...  :Wink:

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## OBBob

Nice. I was just about to ask where your windows were up to. Are you installing or do they do it?

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## ChocDog

I'll whack them in. With a spare pair of hands. or 2. My mate who is a builder is away at the moment, he was going to be my spare hands, but I dont feel like waiting for him. Hence there is a question from me in the windows forum about best flashing practices (do I need a trench coat, park or bus stop, etc, etc...).

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## paddyjoy

Windows look good, just looking at the pics I reckon they can from the same place I got our bifolds!

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## shauck

> Oh, and just for shauck, this should show as a nice small thumbnail so that your morse code provided internet in Daylesford is not overloaded...

  .. / -. . .- .-. .-.. -.-- / -.. .. -.. -. .----. - / ... . . / - .... .. ... / .--. --- ... - --..-- / .- ... / - .... . / .-. . ... - / --- ..-. / -.-- --- ..- .-. / - .... .-. . .- -.. / - .- -.- . ... / .- --. . ... / - --- / .-.. --- .- -.. .-.-.- / .. -- .- --. .. -. . / .. ..-. / .. / .... .- -.. / .- -.. -.. .-.-.-   :Cool:

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## OBBob

> .. / -. . .- .-. .-.. -.-- / -.. .. -.. -. .----. - / ... . . / - .... .. ... / .--. --- ... - --..-- / .- ... / - .... . / .-. . ... - / --- ..-. / -.-- --- ..- .-. / - .... .-. . .- -.. / - .- -.- . ... / .- --. . ... / - --- / .-.. --- .- -.. .-.-.- / .. -- .- --. .. -. . / .. ..-. / .. / .... .- -.. / .- -.. -.. .-.-.-

  
he he ... -.-- . ... --..-- / .. - / .-- --- ..- .-.. -.. / -... . / -. .. -.-. . / .. ..-. / - .... . / -. . .-- . ... - / .--. --- ... - ... / .-- . .-. . / .- - / - .... . / - --- .--. / --- ..-. / - .... . / .--. .- --. .  !!!!

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## ChocDog

Even more happy days. Got the windows in over the weekend. Gave the servery sill on the bilfold a good trial run. Now I just need to 'train' my wife to keep serving me beers when they get empty  :Wink:

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## paddyjoy

How did you end up flashing the sides of the Windows?

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## ChocDog

Following the method recommended by the watergate mob. and then seal all around the window opening to window reveal/frame with low expansion PU foam. Ran a dual bead, inner/outer, to create an air gap, plus a couple of breaks in the outer for moisture to escape. But there is no way H20 is getting in... I've yet to put a head flashing on. Will do so when the WB's and archs go on.

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## OBBob

Great! What size is that window (approximately) ... just out of interest.

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## ChocDog

1825 x 980mm. Approximately  :Wink:

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## r1k

Hey ChocDog, 
We were intending to do  a small renovation for the front porch of our old bungalow and that's  when I happened to notice your post. Ours too is a bungalow in  Melbourne, and its front have some similarities in the column, piers,  etc. So I am curious to know if you renovated your front porch or left  it as is. 
If you have some time, please have a look at my below post where I have put some pics and do let us know if we are heading in the right direction  Front porch renovation ideas 
Thanks a lot. 
Kind Regards
 rk

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## ChocDog

> Hey ChocDog, 
> We were intending to do  a small renovation for the front porch of our old bungalow and that's  when I happened to notice your post. Ours too is a bungalow in  Melbourne, and its front have some similarities in the column, piers,  etc. So I am curious to know if you renovated your front porch or left  it as is. 
> If you have some time, please have a look at my below post where I have put some pics and do let us know if we are heading in the right direction  Front porch renovation ideas 
> Thanks a lot. 
> Kind Regards
>  rk

  Hi mate, I will reply in your thread.

----------


## ChocDog

OBBob has politely reminded me that I've been remiss (read: slack) in updating this thread. Hmmm, looks like 2 years have quickly flown by! Woke up one morning a couple of years back and found a kid in the house Who would have thought having a kid would slow renos down? Plus had a bit of an accident on one of my bikes which gave the body a good hammering. So the renos got put on the back burner for a while. 
I'll dig up some photos and get something up. Soon....

----------


## OBBob

> OBBob has politely reminded me that I've been remiss (read: slack) in updating this thread. Hmmm, looks like 2 years have quickly flown by! Woke up one morning a couple of years back and found a kid in the house Who would have thought having a kid would slow renos down? Plus had a bit of an accident on one of my bikes which gave the body a good hammering. So the renos got put on the back burner for a while. 
> I'll dig up some photos and get something up. Soon....

  Ah... it all makes sense now.   :Biggrin:

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## ChocDog

Where were we? Looks like kitchen was done and windows were in. 
There has been a few big jobs done since then. 
Might as well start with the back yard. This is what it looked like when we got hold of the place. I did love the camo painted lattice work!    
Quickly ripped all that down, removed the brick retaining wall, cut back the vege garden by half (great soil in that vege garden) and installed some nice ironbark sleepers as a retaining wall.       
Then it was time to remove more concrete. Luckily it wasn’t quality work and was only an inch thick in most places.   
Removed all the top soil in poor condition, laid down some agi pipe around the perimeter, some irrigation pipe and popups, some new top soil and then some instant turf. Sapphire buffalo in this case.

----------


## ChocDog

So a fair few of the weatherboards were in pretty poor condition. And in some areas there was a mix of square edge and round boards. Plus there was no insulation in any of the walls.      
So Off came ALL the weatherboards, thrown away, insulation and sarking installed and new weatherboards installed. And I do mean every single one of them. Plus new windows at the same time   except the 2 front original ornate windows.  
That was a bit of a labour of love project. Didnt think it would take me as long as it did! There was a fair bit of framing work to fix up as I went. There had been a bit of movement in the frame over the years (bowing of the studs) so I did a combination of planning the old studs and installed a LOT of new studs  it was a quicker and easier way to get a flat and plumb surface for only the cost of some new 90x45.  
All boards were painted on both sides with undercoat before installing and all boards were hand nailed with 50mm 2.8mm gal nails. Nail holes were puttied, sanded and then recoated with undercoat. 
Looks a bit better I think (ignore the temporary downpipes).

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## ChocDog

There was a LOT of concrete in the front yard. A Lot. I hate concrete. Plus a couple of large palm trees a massive olive tree. And some more concrete for good measure.   
The porch slab and brick infill was removed and a frame for the veranda put down. Which was then quickly covered in rubbish...  
The big boy Karcher (diesel powered steamer) made quick work of removing years of paint from the porch columns.  
A bit of the mortar was worse for wear, but after a bit of re-pointing and a paint job the columns came up looking pretty good.   
Some hard work with a demo saw, sledge hammer, fencing bar saw the  concrete gone. Unfortunately it wasn’t as rough as the stuff in the  backyard and 2-3” thick with reo. And a slab on another slab in some  parts. Managed to fill two 6m3 bins with concrete and sweat.  
Built  the veranda deck with spotted gum. Oiled on both sides with Cutek  before install. The veranda doesn’t get used for walking on so was able  to use feature grade SG to get some great gum veins etc in it. 
An  arborist removed a number of trees and absolutely destroyed the stumps  in a matter of minutes with his stumper. Got to get one of those  machines! 
Ran a new main poly water line from the meter to the  house (300mm trench in clay soil...) as the original one was copper sitting just below  the surface with a little bit of concrete covering it and was pretty  battered. 
Had some pretty good fun chasing a rotary hoe around  while ripping the ground apart, removed any of the soil in poor  condition, again laid down some irrigation pipe and popups, put down new  top soil and then some more instant turf. This time Empire Zoysia (a fine  blade buffalo).   
Just recently I welded up some 150mm x 3mm  Corten weathering steel (thanks for the lead on the supplier OBBob!) as a  garden edge ½  buried in the soil with some reo used as pegs welded to its backside. The patina is looking great already. The lawn is  looking a little worse for wear in the photos as it copped a hiding the  week before the photo. Hopefully it will bounce back.

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## travelislife

Looking great! Good update!

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## OBBob

Front is looking great! Isn't it a joy how one thing seems to lead to another!

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## ChocDog

> Front is looking great! Isn't it a joy how one thing seems to lead to another!

  Sure does! Just wish it was a little quicker to happen. On the home run now. The sheds in the back to remove, carport to come down and a nice picket fence. Oh and the bathroom... And my pizza oven. Can never have enough bbqs...

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## SlowMick

Choc Dog - your renovation is awesome - I can't show my wife as she would love a Californian Buglaow - unfortunately for her I already had my half renovated 60s brick veneer triple fronter in suburbia when we met. 
I was wondering- have you painted/finished your servery window as yet?  I think mine came from the same supplier and it has me stumped on how to seal the bottom of the window panes without filling the brush seals with paint. I'm hoping you've nutted it out.  :Biggrin2:

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## ChocDog

Cheers Slowmick - appreciate the feedback. All windows are painted. I hate painting fiddly stuff... I took all the panes off the frames to paint. The best I could do was to tape up the brush seals with standard painting tape to protect them as best as possible and paint the bottom of the panes with a small flat brush. Managed to keep the paint off them ok. Would love to know how the pro's handle painting a lot of the fiddly stuff during a new build - especially window panes that arent fixed in place (especially the sides of double hung windows).

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## OBBob

> ...  (especially the sides of double hung windows).

  From what I can tell you just paint them shut so no one can check!

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## SlowMick

Thanks for that ChocDog.  Are the panes easy to take out and re-install?  I've been avoiding it as they work nice and smoothly at the moment.

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## ChocDog

Very easy to take the hardware off/reinstall Slowmick. Dont stress about it at all.

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## ChocDog

Realised I never followed up with a picture of the finished fireplace. I think it looks a little better than what it started as...

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## OBBob

Nice. Looks like when I do a project and gradually move every conceivable tool from the shed to the lounge room!

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## ChocDog

I never put of photos of the finished kitchen after tiling etc. Theyre a pretty cool looking hand made tile giving them a lot of surface texture. The only other thing I want to do in the kitchen is put some box type shelves either side of the range hood made out of the same recycled messmate that is already used in the kitchen.

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## OBBob

Really nice.

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## Spottiswoode

> Nice. Looks like when I do a project and gradually move every conceivable tool from the shed to the lounge room!

  You aren't the only one. Sometimes it takes almost as long to do the job as to take all the tools back to the workshop. 
Kitchen looks great.

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## Moondog55

Thumbs up from here

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## SlowMick

Kitchen looks great Sir. Helps keep up the motivation to get ours finished.

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## ChocDog

Cheers for the feedback guys  much appreciated. 
The bedrooms came up alright as well I think. Some before and after photos of the 2 big rooms below. 
MAIN BEDROOM:        
2ND BEDROOM:

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## SlowMick

Looks great.  didn't keep the bed head?

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## Spottiswoode

I was a little concerned when I saw the first pic, then worked out it was before.

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## ChocDog

> Looks great.  didn't keep the bed head?

  Franco Cozzo is responsible for a lot of atrocities against good taste in this part of Melbourne. Sheesh, you can even walk to the Brunswick store from our house - he knew his market thats for sure!  
For those of you not in Melbourne, this was one of his tamer ads.... https://youtu.be/6ZUVd9NMM_k  https://youtu.be/6ZUVd9NMM_k

----------


## ChocDog

So I’m guessing once upon a time there was a pergola added to the back off the house. As you do, you fill this in with whatever bits of timber, windows and other odds and sods you clearly find on the side of the road. Voila! You now have what a real-estate agent will cheekily rebrand as a “sunroom”. Gold.  
I too have rebranded the room as my workshop the last couple of years during the renos. But at only 4x3m  its too small for all my toys and gear as a long term workshop. Plus the roofline is at a verandah roof height and not the actual house roof height.   
The plan was always to extended the slab of the existing “workshop” 1.5m to make it bigger (4x4.5m). This will also mean the tardis of sheds upon sheds in the backyard can also come down as I wont need to store stuff in there anymore (then the rest of the backyard can be landscaped). This and the bathroom are the last major jobs to do and need to be done at the same time as the workshop butts onto the bathroom and will need to be completely reframed properly – so will some of the bathroom. The workshop and bathroom will be done professionally by my mate who's a builder.  I'm doing the grunt work on this but don't have the time to do it myself. Plus I want a professional result on the bathroom - and I'm not a professional! 
Whats the hold up on this? Tiles and bath. Apparently finding the right bathroom tiles and bath take a while. Close-to-a-year while… ;-)

----------


## ChocDog

So, while the search for the perfect tile and bath continues I decided to crack on with getting some of the grunt work sorted for the workshop re-build. 
First, the couple of lovely asbestos outbuildings (outside kitchenette and toilet) needed to go. About $800 later they were gone. The timber frame and roof is still there for the moment.  
Then the 20mm-50mm thick path was ripped up and excavated for a 100mm slab with 300mm footings. No point mucking around 
Had to cut down and block off a disused sewer pipe along the way (original outhouse were guessing). 
I dowelled the new slab to the existing slab with N12 smooth bar. 450mm length at approx. 300mm centres. Tight fit but no chem set etc. Buried a couple of 25mm HD conduits (with sweep bends) in a 600mm deep trench. 1 for outdoor lights around the (to be) bbq area and the other for the irrigation controller). Boxed up the slab using 240x45mm TP. A little overkill (!) but I needed it for something else.   
Part of the existing workshop slab had to be cut and removed. At the moment when you exist the back of the house you walk through the workshop. Plan is to exist direct onto a new patio area (at a lower height) and the workshop will be sectioned off by a wall along the slab edge.  
A cubic metre of concrete, and a few wheel barrow runs later, job done.

----------


## ChocDog

Well, who would have thought it would take 3 years to find the right bathroom tiles??? Not me, that’s for sure ;-) But finally someone has now locked in all the tiles and other bits and pieces for the bathroom reno. Granted I did hear mutterings late last week on a slightly different blue/green hue of handmade tile being spotted. Hmmm…. 
Either way, bathroom and workshop demo and rebuild is booked in for mid November. About time is all I can say!  
Workshop/storeroom (3.9x4.4m) is north of the bathroom.

----------


## Marc

Hi CD ... you are not the one that wants to tile the ceiling are you? There was one that wanted to do that ...  :Smilie:  
You came a long way with this renovation. So much work and so much detail. Do you look back and say to yourself ... Did I do that? How on earth did I do that?
I say that to myself some times

----------


## Marc

> Franco Cozzo is responsible for a lot of atrocities against good taste in this part of Melbourne. Sheesh, you can even walk to the Brunswick store from our house - he knew his market thats for sure!  
> For those of you not in Melbourne, this was one of his tamer ads.... https://youtu.be/6ZUVd9NMM_k  https://youtu.be/6ZUVd9NMM_k

  Meraviglia meraviglia .... if it is any consolation in German Franco Cozzo means Franco is throwing up (with a bit of poetic license)  ... ha ha ... I would too  :Smilie:

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## ChocDog

> Hi CD ... you are not the one that wants to tile the ceiling are you? There was one that wanted to do that ...

  Tiles on the roof? Me? No way on that one!   

> You came a long way with this renovation. So much work and so much detail. Do you look back and say to yourself ... Did I do that? How on earth did I do that?
> I say that to myself some times

  
No, it is more late at night I wake up wondering what I committed myself to! There has been a fair bit achieved, professionals when required/desired, helpers when willing to help, and the rest of the grunt work left to me. I like having a sense of achievement. Its been slow going because I only work on it here and there because I dont have much free time plus Im not the worlds quickest worker!

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## 0438snappy

Great work, subscribed.  Amazing to see the difference from start to now.   
I thought our place was close to the ultimate "renovator's dream", but your photos tell a different story!    :Smilie:

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## ChocDog

Nah, its just been a couple of coats and paint and its all good!  
I'm expecting to see a go to whoa thread with lots of photos of your place starting soon. Love seeing old cal bungalows come back to like. Where in the inner north is your place?      

> Great work, subscribed.  Amazing to see the difference from start to now.   
> I thought our place was close to the ultimate "renovator's dream", but your photos tell a different story!

----------


## ChocDog

Most recent update. As expected tiles for one wall of the bathroom have changed again...! No more changes I have been guaranteed. Good, because they are ordered and on there way now! Unfortunately they are on a slow boat from Portugual so a 2 month delay from expected bathroom start time. Should be here early/mid December. The workshop/4th bedroom will get framed and roofed up in the meantime.

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## 0438snappy

> Nah, its just been a couple of coats and paint and its all good!  
> I'm expecting to see a go to whoa thread with lots of photos of your place starting soon. Love seeing old cal bungalows come back to like. Where in the inner north is your place?

  We're a bit further out (in Preston).  Judging by your real estate pics i'd guess that you guys are somewhere around Brunswick or Coburg area?  Your place looks really familiar from the original pics, we spent ages searching before we finally found something (i think we saw something like 100+ places) and we definitely went to a few houses very similar to yours.    
I reckon its possible that the previous owner of your place and ours were related (or worked at the same concrete factory  :Wink: ), as we also have lots of lovely concrete ***everywhere*** around our house ...  :No:   :Doh:   
Yeah I really should start up a go to whoa thread, we have loads of pics in/on various devices and locations, would be good to get them all together.   
That will have to be a job for next weekend though, been flat out estimating quantities for weatherboards so as usual have run out of time!

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## ChocDog

Firstly happy new year to you all! 
So the slow boat with our tiles finally docked in December but unfortunately my builder's (my mate) lead chippie damaged his shoulder which changed the schedule some what. Bathroom got put off until a couple of weeks from now, but the great news was my workshop has emerged from its cocoon and transformed from an ugly grub into something far more resplendent! Well in my eyes...          
Still a bit more to sort out yet though.The internal walls will get villaboarded when the bathroom gets done and I will paint the floor down the track but for the moment I am in and that's all that matters!  
A bit more external cladding/flashing needs to be completed as well. We removed/replaced all the new weatherboards I put on the kitchen wall (left side) a couple of years back as we brought the door exit point rearward and we didn't want any weatherboards joins. Had a nice new door made out of tas oak with double glazing. Coated it in Sikkens HLSE (light oak) thanks to some recommendations on here. The workshop is on the right in the photo. It has a 920 door accessible from the outside of the house but also a 820 door just behind the glass door. The workshop was built as a habitable room so down the track the 920 door can be removed and filled in if so desired. But at the moment its all mine ;-)

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## OBBob

Cool toys...

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## ChocDog

I do like toys ;-)    
Granted the body is getting too old to enjoy some of them. Might have to become one of those dads that transfers all the energy from his hobbies into my kid's hobbies once he gets old enough!  
====

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## OBBob

> I do like toys ;-)    
> Granted the body is getting too old to enjoy some of them. Might have to become one of those dads that transfers all the energy from his hobbies into my kid's hobbies once he gets old enough!  
> ====

  It is undoubtedly your job as a parent to encourage your kids in the right direction with regards to hobbies. 😀

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## ChocDog

So while I wait for the builders to return and kick into the bathroom and finish the other odds and sods, its given me a chance to start prepping for the pergola. 
I sourced a combination of recycled spotted gum an iron bark posts (125x125) and beams (170x50) from Kenney Pierce in Seymour over the year. Carting the 5.2m beams back from Seymour on the ute might have been pushing my luck a bit, but I did have the red flag at least    
The beams came out of the old rail workshop in Ipswich.   
More than a few hours later with a 9 grinder, 100mm belt sander and an orbital later, a 100 or so years of weathering got cleaned up and then coated with Cutek. Theyre looking pretty good I think.       
The T blade stirrups wont be going anywhere in a hurry  8mm plate 800mm long

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## SlowMick

The timber came up beautifuuly.  worth the effort. :2thumbsup:

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## ChocDog

> The timber came up beautifuuly.  worth the effort.

  Cheers mick, I reckon as well. Definitely a labour of love. A couple of long days of prep work and it's been hot in Melbourne recently (for us Victorians that is). They looked quite red after the cutek went on but they are already starting to settle to a nice brown colour and showing their history. I sanded down to 120 but was careful not to remove the life they've lived so you can still see their original saw lines and nail hole oxidisation. Happy days.  
====

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## OBBob

Wow, you're certainly dedicated! I hope you don't succumb to my unfortunate habit of selling up...

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## ChocDog

Nope, need to stay put and enjoy the place I think!  
====

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## craka

Looks fantastic.    What was the grinder used for?

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## ChocDog

> Looks fantastic.    What was the grinder used for?

  Cheers craka. Fitted a 7" sanding disc to it (you can't get a 9"). More than a couple of the recycled timber mobs recommended this to me. Once you get your technique sorted it works surprisingly well. I only followed up with the belt sander to remove some swirl marks. A 36 grit sanding disc removes a lot of timber very quickly!  
====

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## craka

> Cheers craka. Fitted a 7" sanding disc to it (you can't get a 9"). More than a couple of the recycled timber mobs recommended this to me. Once you get your technique sorted it works surprisingly well. I only followed up with the belt sander to remove some swirl marks. A 36 grit sanding disc removes a lot of timber very quickly!  
> ====

  Cheers for that ChocDog.   I'll have to put that in the memory bank.

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## ChocDog

Well, bathroom is underway. As I thought might be the case the slab in the bathroom was like in the one in the kitchen - rubbish. Lots of rubble, bricks and no reo. So, like the one in the kitchen, its now gone and a timber sub-floor being built in its place. Fun, fun, fun.

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## phild01

First thing I saw was this mysterious person!    :Missing:

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## SlowMick

wow.  that is some heavy duty renovating.

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## Moondog55

I'm sure I've seen the same wall at our place, the "Slab" at our place was easier to remove tho as it was only under where the old copper boiler used to sit, I think they used sand and spit as mortar in ours

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## ChocDog

> I'm sure I've seen the same wall at our place, the "Slab" at our place was easier to remove tho as it was only under where the old copper boiler used to sit, I think they used sand and spit as mortar in ours

  Sounds like the same bloke did both our places then Moondog!

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## ChocDog

Got some nice holes now and a open air "alfresco" bathroom. Did try to convince the boss to change the plans and put a glass partition feature wall in b/w the bathroom and workshop, but sadly she wasnt interested...!

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## ChocDog

> wow.  that is some heavy duty renovating.

  
Just rolling with the punches coming my way at the moment Mick!

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## David.Elliott

Got some nice holes now and a open air "alfresco" bathroom. Did try to convince the boss to change the plans and put a glass partition feature wall in b/w the bathroom and workshop, but sadly she wasnt interested...! 
So long as it was one way glass, ie: you could see in but they could not see out, I'm not seeing a problem! :Blush7:

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## ChocDog

Got some plumbing, some walls and some floor sheeting now. Moving in the right direction. Finally 
Whilst thats been going on, I got around to rebating and recessing the pergola posts for the T-blade stirrups and bolts. Tried to use as many tools as possible: circ saw, router, chisels, hammer, hand saw, hand drill, bench drill, drill bits, hole saw and spade bit. Of course the posts are not square so clamped them to a sled so I could true them up to the bench drill once only for each face. A lot of mucking around, but Im pretty happy with the end result.

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## CraigandKate

Nice work on the posts! Very neat, looking forward to seeing them up.

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## ChocDog

Progress.

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## turnstiles

Wow - a huge difference from the photo last week.
Is that hole on the right for a recessed cabinet?
Great speedy progress ChocDog.

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## ChocDog

Cheers Turnstiles. Remember, its not me doing the work so thats why its happening quicker! 
Yep, the shaving cabinet is getting recessed so that only about 110mm's protrudes from wall.   

> Wow - a huge difference from the photo last week.
> Is that hole on the right for a recessed cabinet?
> Great speedy progress ChocDog.

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## ChocDog

Getting there.

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## SlowMick

wow. looking good. love people go do something with a bit of personality  :Biggrin:

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## ChocDog

> wow. looking good. love people go do something with a bit of personality

  
Unfortunately personality costs lots of cash I'm finding Mick!!! But it is looking fantastic and more importantly the boss is very happy. Just wish it was finished - I'm starting to get sick of cold showers at 6am under the lemon tree after 4+ weeks...

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## SlowMick

we had a portable shower in the driveway when we did our bathroom.  The mains pressure instant gas hot water was way better than our old electric gravity fed shower.  only down side was it was outside  :Biggrin:

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## seriph1

Can't beat Bosch Blue corded tools for the money.

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## seriph1

Lots of well-done-work there mate.

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## JB1

Very nice. 
Who is doing your cabinetry?

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## ChocDog

So we got the bathroom back a couple of weeks ago. 
I'm very happy with how its turned out. Was still about of ceiling paint and caulking to do at this stage when I took these photos.  
The green/aqua coloured tile is actually a tessellated tile (traditionally used on the floor - especially in a verandah in heritage homes) so has some porosity therefore it got a couple of quotes of sealer.  
The vanity and shaving cabinet are both made out of recycled messmate made by a local furniture maker.

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## ChocDog

The pergola is progressing. Just slowly.

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## ChocDog

> Very nice. 
> Who is doing your cabinetry?

  Thanks JB1. Which cabinetry? Do you mean the recycled messmate shaving cabinet and vanity? That was done by Chris at 2nd Chance Tables. Great job.  
Still got to fit out the laundry and broom closet. Just basic white melamine required. Nothing special or fancy. No 2 pack required. The original plan has fallen through. So I am now looking for a new cabinet maker to do it. If you've got any recommendations I would be happy to have them. Was even debating going custom flat pack via: Online DIY Custom Cabinets Solutions | goFlatpacks - Australian Made and installing. But to be honest, I just want someone to do it for me! Just dont have much spare time at the moment.

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## JB1

Yes, the shaving cabinet. 
Vanity looks great too! 
====

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## Southernwood

Stunning detail and effort over years.  I'm just part way in on a pretty big restoration too, except with heritage listing I have to document and request each thing with the state govt first.  It makes you plan a bit.  I hope I can keep up some momentum!

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## ChocDog

Cheers! You'll need to put up some pics of where you are up to soon.  
====

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## ChocDog

Mainly been mucking around with landscaping over the last year. Finished the pergola over a year ago, but never put up any photos of it. Having to house and notch all timbers and recess all bolts took a while but think the end result was worth it. 
Had 4 8 to 10m3 skips here over the last year dragging dirt, concrete and rocks away… 
Got an excavator & driver in for the day to rip 18m3 out of the backyard ready for a 50sqm slab (patio + bbq/pizza oven area), new lawn area and garden beds. I hired a motorised barrow to cart it all out to the skips. Bloody brilliant! Carries close to 4 barrow loads at once and has an articulated lift arm to get over the sides of skips. 
Had to spend a bit of an effort cleaning up the old foundations of the brick boundary fence before the slab pour as a couple of inches of this is now going to be exposed and in the way of my bbq area. 
The slab is 100mm in most areas but 150mm in the area the bbq/pizza over is going to go. It also extends part way down the side of the house for a small shed. Found a 1m deep sink hole when excavating around where the slab was going. A bit of digging later found a crack in earthenware sewerage pipe (not far from the boundary trap) that had been slowly eroding the area for years. Some quick excavating followed by a visit from my plumber later got it all sorted… And amongst all that the heavens dumped a bucket load of rain onto Melbourne over a week so the backyard was a bit of a bog hole while trying to do all this. 
The bbq/pizza oven area will be built out all the bricks I have found during the reno (badly built garden beds plus lots randomly buried everywhere). These bricks will nicely tie in with the recycle brick boundary fence we have. Once the bbq/pizza oven area is built, we will tile the slab with bluestone tiles. 
Also painted the back fence and put up a vertical garden wall (125mm cypress posts with SL72 reo mesh between them). 
I also ripped up the 2 side paths (100mm concrete…) which I am currently replacing with gravel and garden beds. And running new irrigation main lines (25mm blue line poly) and valves, etc. 
And that’s about it for the moment. Here’s a couple of photos of the place when we purchased it showing what we started with. Good location just badly looked after! 
I’ll throw some progress photos up as well.

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## ChocDog



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## ChocDog



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## ChocDog



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## Moondog55

Nicely done

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## ChocDog

Cheers moondog!  
....

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## bmwkng

Hi ChocDog, I'm a few years late to the party but i was wondering which cabinet maker you used for your kitchen? Do you still recommend them now that you've had a few years to enjoy your kitchen? Cheers.    

> And finally, the most important room in the house for us as we love to cook. We’re lucky we had a big room to play with, one of the main reasons behind buying this place. It was always planned to use as much of this room as possible for bench space, so we could both work in here. 
> It’s had a bit of a journey this room, from its original start as a very tired looking 80’s kitchen:   
>  to getting its rubbish slab ripped out of it (no reo, just a few tiles and cans) and getting rebuilt with joists/bearers:  
> being used as my workshop while the rest of the place got sorted:  
> and then getting the walls/ceiling  ripped down to re-frame it (it was at least 70mm out of square…), insulated, replastered and floor laid:   
>  Had a couple of false starts regarding the ‘look’ we wanted, but I am really happy with the end result. We wanted to integrate a fair bit of timber into the room but without it becoming a log cabin sort of look. We were originally going to go for a timber veneer on the doors, but I also wanted some re-cycled timber in the room. But with timber floors we were concerned it was going to look like a tree house. Change in plans. 
> In the end we went with a simple flat face white 2-pac door and concrete (‘oyster’) ceaserstone benchtop. I got my recycled wood fetish satisfied by  sourcing some great looking re-cycled messmate (30& 40mm) from Urban Salvage Urban Salvage - Recycled / Reclaimed Timber Flooring, Floorboards, Melbourne, Building Materials, Second Hand, Wood.  and getting this laminated into various panels to be used a ‘features’ around the place. Here is a couple of pics of the timber while I was cutting to length and desired layouts before delivering it to the guys that did the panel lamination.   
> A word about our cabinet maker. Bl00dy brilliant is all I can say! I found him by asking around a few of the re-cycled timber merchants. He is a one-man band and has an amazing attention to details and pride for producing a quality job. Wouldn’t even take a deposit for the job – that’s how confident he is about his work. He wouldn’t let me pay a cent until it was all installed. Seriously. Plus he was similar in price to the other cabinet makers we talked with (but actually cheaper because he used all top of the line Blumm hardware  - full carcass draws though, no tandembox stuff). Stone guys were great as well. I’ll drop another thread into the kitchen area giving both these guys a recommendation in case anyone is looking for a quality cabinet maker and stone mason in Melbourne. 
> All in all, I’m pretty impressed with the way its come together and its brilliant to have a great space to cook in once again. It took a lot longer than I hoped it would though! And there is still more stuff to be finished though before its complete: painting around the bulkheads, hang 2 pendants over the bench. mount the rangehood, install the 2nd oven, replace the windows, tiling for the splash back, some open shelves made from the same recycled messmate, etc, etc, etc…! But for now, I’m pretty content.

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## ChocDog

Hey there BMWkng, I'm not around here much these days so missed your question. Kitchen cabinets were done by Tony Marley. Have a look here for details. Also includes details of the stone supplier I'd also recommend.  https://www.renovateforum.com/f200/m...bourne-113816/

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