Project House: The Transformation
I realise it’s been quite some time since I last gave you an update on our house renovation project. I had taken so many photos during the renovations process that the task of sorting through them seemed overwhelming and I kept putting it off. Now that the festive season has passed I am using the short, dark days and miserable weather as the perfect excuse to curl up with my laptop and get lots of writing done.
As many of you know, we bought the house, almost on a whim, back in September of 2013. It was in pretty bad condition inside and we knew it would need a complete overhaul before it was liveable. We started work almost immediately on dismantling the inside but needed to wait until the snow cleared in March before we could begin renovating in earnest.
I’ve pulled together a selection of photos from throughout the transformation period into a short video for you. I will bring you a second video showing the finished house over the coming days.
I think I have given a reasonably good outline of the changes we made in the video. However, I didn’t want to go into too much detail – I found it difficult to find a long enough song as it was! If you have any questions about the house or the work we completed, please just let me know in the comments.
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Hi, June. My name is Joy, and I live in Oregon, USA. I just watched a part of your episode of House Hunters International and sought you on the internet. I could not believe that you bought the house, for it looked horrible!! Aruna did such a good job renovating it. I love the roof tiles which remind me of my native country, Japan. How was the winter? The house must have been very warm with the insolation you put inside and outside. Thank you for posting the videos. I enjoyed watching them very much.
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Hi Joy! Thank you for coming and finding us after watching the show. The original house was pretty dark and dreary but we could see the potential and we’re very happy with how it turned out. It really was cosy during the winter – the heating and insulation worked perfectly. Glad you enjoyed the videos!
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I don’t envy you all that hard work! But the house looks wonderful. I can’t wait to see the finished project. It will truly be YOUR house! 🙂
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There is no feeling in the world like making a house your own. This was a massive project. You use similar products as we do, with some differences. I was astounded by the thickness of the concrete in the walls, but it makes sense in that cold climate. Your house will last forever. Poor Arunas though! Can you even use a concrete saw? Love the windows. The heating coils are such efficient heating too. Low cost for high heating output vs.wall heaters. You guys did everything top notch. Looking forward to the seeing the rest of the transformation.
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Thanks Susan! I could barely lift the jack hammer, never mind get it through 15 inches of concrete! All worth it in the end, though.
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Great video June, looking forward to seeing the finished result xx
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Thanks Liz. Are you in Madagascar on a project? How cool is that!
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Amazing! Wonderful video too – can’t wait to see the end result!
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This is great. I wish we could get on with doing ours. That is on hold indefinitely. We bought more land that goes with a village house so on to more planting and fixing that place up first. You guys did a great job!!! I can’t wait to see the result of all the hard work!! 🙂
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We have a bit of land, too, that we haven’t yet figured out what to do with. What do you guys plan to do with yours? Will you be able to make a living from it?
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Wow, this is what I call a project. I shudder just thinking about cutting through concrete walls. What an incredible difference!
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Those concrete walls nearly killed him! He went through two jack-hammers before he was finished!
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As my husband and I ponder a fixer-upper versus move-in ready (we leave our current house at the end of March), this certainly gives me some food for thought. That said, I am not nearly patient enough to have lasted since Nov 2013 for this work to be completed. 🙂
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Thanks Nancy. It is nice to be able to build something exactly the way you want it. We were very lucky to have somewhere else to live (rent free) while we were doing the renovations. They really only took about 6 months but that would have been a very long time if we’d had to pay to live somewhere else while we were waiting.
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A lot of work but so worth it! Looking forward to The Big Reveal!
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Wow, that’s some project! You guys did a really fantastic job! Looking forward to the next installment! 🙂
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This video is very inspirational! We can’t wait to see the rest. Please post it soon!
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Thanks folks! Should have the second half for you within the next week.
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What a challenge. You took on much more than we did. I look forward to seeing the finished house.
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Hey Andrew. Not sure if you saw the house in its original state but it really was unliveable. We would have frozen in winter. We had no choice but to rip it out and pretty much start again. It’s worked out nicely, though!
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Looking good though
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