# Forum More Stuff Go to Whoa!  Nearly there after 2 and a half years....

## Haveago1

Hi, 
At last I can see an end in sight and so thought I would share progress to date.  
Bought a place that was a 2 bedroom full brick bungalow built during the war which has had a number of extensions added to it over the years, including a second storey in 1989.  
The laundry had newspaper stuffed around the pipes through the concerete floor dated from 1939 while the lino in the "study" at the back had newspaper from 1941 under it.  
When we bought it it had a lot of rooms - an additional 3 bedrooms, large rumpus, full bathroom and kitchenette upstairs in addition to what is shown on the lower floor plan, but it was filthy and painted awful colours thoughout. The previous owners had numerous cats and dogs which were allowed anywhere and pee'd everywhere. Also, most of the windows were opaque to a certain height where the cats would sit on the ledge and lick them..eerrcchhh.. 
Gave the place a good clean and steamcleaned everything we could before we moved in, but the groundfloor layout was awkward and was always going to be require substantial revision. 
The intention was to upgrade the place from a post war cottage to an art deco residence - I know it sounds pretentious, but bear with me ... 
Stages 1 to 3  are shown numbered on the plan with blue and red edits. This was to open up the downstairs and put the kitchen at the back. 
1 was the red texture brick fireplace (non functional) which was knocked out and replaced with a non functional victorian/edwardian tiled fireplace. 
2,3 & 4 are full brick walls which were knocked out to open up the downstairs. These bricks filled a 9 mtr & a 5 mtr bin - not thrown in, stacked to get the maximum number in. The Field Marshall wanted to keep the very wide and ornate cornices in the living room intact so a small bulkhead was made for that to butt up to once 2 was taken down.  
5 is a double sliding door cut into the double brickwork wall, 6 is a similar full height fixed window. 
7 was the original back door which was blocked in as that was where the Pantry was going 
8 was a window that was blocked in as that was backing up to the kitchen cupboards and cooktop. 
9 was an internal doorway (ex stair access) that was filled in 
10 and 11 are old wooden double hung windows that had been painted shut years ago and were replaced with aluminium ones from a garage sale for $30.00 each - bargain. 
12 was a similar painted shut window which was also replaced in aluminium - bit dearer that one - $70 from Ebay. 
Biggest job in that stage was that once wall 3 was removed the bottom of the stairs intruded into the middle of the room.  
Instead of going UP the direction of the arrow from the middle of the room, they should go up from along the side wall then do a right hander from the landing to reach the top, so you walk under them as you go to the back.  
These stairs were carpeted MDF done on the cheap when the second storey was done in 1989 and obviously needed replacing, however, that looked like it was going to be a bit xx'y.  
Ended up cutting the old stairs into three parts - the two runs of seven stairs each plus the landing, and sitting them on a 4 x 2 frame. The cunning part was the three panels for the 90 degree turn at thelanding were flipped over to go the other way...the frame was made from recycled timber a neighbour was throwing out so the total cost was $60 for brackets and bolts, instead of a few grand... 
Will put up pics in next few days of these stages....

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## Haveago1

Pics of fireplace which replaced the old texture brick one...

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## Haveago1

Starting to take down wall 4 on the plan between the old Dining and Study at the back to make way for the new kitchen

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## Haveago1

Wall down...the window on the left is the one that was boarded up....the door on the right at the back was also boarded up.

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## Haveago1

Finished kitchen with new sliding door and fixed window.....

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## Haveago1

The wall that was removed was about halfway between the rug and the island bench in the above pic and obviously left a gap in the floor boards.  
I don't like the look of boards crossways at such gaps (though they are a lot easier) so I cut out some boards to patch this from under where the kitchen cupboards were going. The space under the cupboards was then covered with some green tongue. 
The floor was sanded and stained mahogany then covered with three coats of water based polyurethane....its a bugger to keep clean as it shows all the dust but suits the look we were trying for....

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## Haveago1

This shows the downstairs and the staircase that was turned 90 degrees. As the staircase was was only made of MDF I got some 3mm ply, stained and polyurethaned it to match the floor and stuck it on the treads and risers to give it a more classy looking finish. 
Note the ornate original cornicing which required a small bulkhead to retain...It was so thick I was able to put 10mm gyprock over the original ceiling and the rendered walls and still have a lip to the edge of the cornice. 
The two wall recesses are where the original doorway was to enter the small room which enclosed the bottom of the stairs.  
When walls 2 and 3 in the plan were taken out the side walls were out of alignment by 30 -40 mm which made it awkward as it was intended to be one run of wall along that side. To cover this out of alignment problem I put in a false wall 100mm thick - that allowed it to be deep enough for the two recesses so a flaw turned out to be a feature. 
The relativeley small distance between walls 2 and 3 made it not worthwhile to try to patch up the gaps where the bricks were taken out as it was just too fiddly. The whole section of floor was taken out and replaced.

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## sundancewfs

Very tidy work Haveago1, looks like its come up a real treat.
I like the idea of stealing the floor boards from under the cupboard, I have something similar planned for our lounge room, except I'm going to steal a whole room's worth  :Biggrin:

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## Haveago1

Thanks Sundance..... 
Here is a pic of the old cornice, bulkhead and corbel at the join where the wall was made thicker to hide the fact they were out of alignment once the perpendicular wall was removed from between them....

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## Haveago1

Had the same problem in reverse when the next wall was removed further down the now one big long room.  
Had to 'dogleg' it back to the original width of the wall which was a challenge to get the cornicing to look right.....

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## Gooner

Impressive stuff. Professional looking work.

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