Our House Part 2: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (inside)

Forgive the title, I do love a bit of David Bowie!

Over the (nearly) 13 years we have lived in our house, we have made a few changes (not including all the bedroom-swapping we do around here!)

Within two years of moving in, we had pulled down nearly all of the internal walls in the living area. For some reason, I can't find any photos, but we went from a tiny box of a kitchen, a separate living room and a walled-off loungeroom to one big open space. We still haven't patched the plaster where the walls were, but it's on our list...

We also painted the bedrooms insanely bright colours:

 

Believe it or not, the colours actually worked quite well. The yellow brightens up the room considerably, and the blue is cheerful and inviting. Still, more 'neutral' colours are probably needed as we grow older and far less sensible. It's on our list...

We also ripped up the carpets fairly early on. It wasn't really a very nice carpet anyway, but after finding bucketloads of sand underneath, I was convinced that I would never have carpet again. We're not the neatest people in the world, but keeping a wooden floor clean is much easier than a carpet!

Anthony also built a couple of simple but nifty and absolutely essential things in the hallway.
The first was a big cupboard, which is almost as wide as the hallway is long. He also built a clothes drying rack all the way along the hallway, which is very handy for days weeks like this where it rains and rains and rains. It holds two baskets of washing and when the heather's on in the hallway, everything dries really quickly!

In 2003, we had the bathroom done. We had timed it so that it would be completed by the time Oliver was born, but sadly the builders didn't share the same timeline. The day I went into labour, there was no access to the bathroom, and they'd just tiled the toilet, so we couldn't use that either. Twice I drove out to my mum and dad's place to shower, and I was lucky enough to get to use the 'natural toilet' (i.e. the ground) in the backyard. Now I'm not a small person, and at 40 weeks pregnant I was the size of a small truck, so you can just imagine me out there, having contractions and trying to wee without falling over.
Not pleasant!
And now, 7 years later, there are problems with it: the paint's peeling off and the floor has moved. We're a little peeved that we didn't do it ourselves actually, with Anthony being the handy man that he is. I'm sure we'll do it again some time. It's on our list...

Weirdly enough, with all the photos I take, I don't seem to have any of the bathroom before/after. Perhaps I didn't want reminders of that rather unpleasant experience!

We've still got big plans for the indoors. As I've mentioned before, we've changed our lounge room window, and Anthony recently replaced another window with a door:

And Anthony is currently working on a new kitchen for me, which will be very nice! Of course, with Anthony in charge, it's taking an awfully long time (there's something mildly annoying about the time frame in which tradies complete personal projects...), but I know once it's done it will be solid as a rock and absolutely perfect. Hopefully I won't have to wait too much longer!
Once we've done the kitchen, we'll patch up the plaster and paint the whole lounge/kitchen/dining area. Which will really bring it together. And painting's my thing, so I know it will get done fairly quickly!

There are more plans afoot. They are on the awfully long list. Hopefully we'll be able to cross off some things very soon!

Next - the changes outside...