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California Bungalow renovation

simon_c
Growing in Experience

California Bungalow renovation

California.jpg

Hey all!

 

My fiancee and I have just settled on a 3 bedroom Californian bungalow in the northern suburbs. It needs a ton of work, but has great bones.

 

We've been in for 3 weeks and with the help of friends, family and a week off work, have completed the following:

  • Sparky has rewired all switches and lights, plus added a few more (incl. downlights in kitchen)
  • Cleaned, prepped, painted 2 of 3 bedrooms, hallway, lounge room, dining room, bathroom
  • Replaced 30sqm of corrugated roofing
  • Ripped out old kitchen (due to water damage and black mould) and fitted a secondhand one with granite bench and smeg appliances (scored for a cool $1k on FB marketplace!)
  • Started hacking out over grown bushes etc.

 

Our rough strategy is to get the interior livable over the next couple of months, while doing guttering/roofing, then hit the exterior to replace a ton of weatherboards, build a garage (to house a project car currently in backyard), do the garden, then restump hopefully in 6-12months. 

 

Will post some before/after pics, then document periodically as we go. Having a ball so far!

 

Bathroom

Some serious mould treatment here as the previous owner never replaced a broken celing fan; scraping, sanding and treating before painting with blocking undercoats and bathroom paints. Also had to replace all the timber cornices/mouldings. Used the following from Bunnings:

Before

 

 Bathroom 2.jpgBathroom Ceiling.pngBathroom.png

 

During

 

 

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After

-Has been tidied up a bit since photo :wink: 

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Bedrooms

Lots of plastering over cracks, but main difficulty was getting perished underlay of the floorboards in the 3rd bedroom ..which is now a tool/storage room I refer to as our 'walk-in workshop' :wink:

Paint used:

-Dulux Wash&Wear (Natural White) https://www.bunnings.com.au/dulux-wash-wear-4l-natural-white-low-sheen-paint_p1370173

-Dulux Ceiling Paint https://www.bunnings.com.au/dulux-15l-white-ceiling-paint_p1370217

 

Before/During

 

 

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After

-No photos of other rooms, will add asap

 

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Hallway/Loung/Dining 

Plenty more prep work done in the lounge room (plaster had popped off on RHS of fireplace). Cutting in the cornices were my least favourite part!

 

Before/During

 

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After

-First photo was before dining room was done, hence bookshelves blocking view :smile:

 

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Kitchen

Work in progress, but you get the idea. A massive improvement after finding a water leak and mould at the back of the cupboards.

 

Before/During

 

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After (current state... plenty more to go!)

 

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UPDATE - Just added some overhead cabinets, a bigger window, insulation and some new weatherboards!

 

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Roof

Plenty more work to do on gutters, but we fixed some leaks above the kitchen :smile:

 

Before/During

 

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After (plus some city views that are begging for a loft conversion / second story!)

 

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Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: California Bungalow Renovation

Wow, looks like you've achieved a lot in just three weeks. Great stuff @simon_c.

 

Please let us know if you need a hand with anything, and we look forward to future updates to see your progress. 

 

Can I ask why you didn't restump first? 

 

Jason

 

 

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simon_c
Growing in Experience

Re: California Bungalow Renovation

Thanks @Jason!

RE: Restumping

It was a combo of having just spent ~$10k on rewiring (safety first), not having enough for restumping (another ~$10k), needing to spend other money more urgently (garage, fencing, kitchen, exterior, guttering etc.) and the house drastically needing a spruce up... the dark/dated colours, mould in bathroom, cracks/stains/chips in paint etc.

We know we're going to have to redo heaps of plastering and painting after we restump, but didn't want to live in the house as it was for ~12 months.
Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: California Bungalow Renovation

There are always tough decisions to make when you are renovating, aren't there @simon_c? Thanks for the update.

 

Have you seen this blog post? - https://www.workshop.com.au/t5/Blog/Rolling-up-the-sleeves/ba-p/671. Your story reminds me of @mikedoeslife and his partner Friedel who are renovating a weatherboard cottage. Mike might like to share some of his tips and experiences so far. 

 

And do let us know if you need a hand with anything. We have members with loads of renovation experience, like @2Belindas.

 

Jason

 

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BIM_Engineer
Former Community Member

Re: Californian Bungalow Renovation

Great View from the roof

You should have considered a loft

DIY Placement of a loft

Kermit
Amassing an Audience

Re: Californian Bungalow Renovation

Wow, all that in 3 weeks! Well done @simon_c.

Re: Californian Bungalow Renovation

That's awesome mate - great progress. Looking forward to seeing the rest @simon_c!
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Handy and helpful
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Bernie
Getting Established

californian bungalow renovation

I was just looking a the Californian Bungalow Renovation,fantastic progress in such a short time!

 

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: californian bungalow renovation

Many thanks for joining in the discussion @Bernie. I'm sure @simon_c really appreciates the positive feedback. Hopefully we can get an update soon on how the renovation work is progressing.

 

Let me extend a very warm welcome to the Workshop community. We're really pleased to have you join us and trust that you'll get plenty of inspiration from our clever and creative members, as well as helpful information and advice when you need a hand. Feel free to post anytime.

 

Jason

 

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StevieB
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Re: California Bungalow renovation

Hi @simon_c,

 

Thanks again for sharing your renovation with us. Your project has been really popular with over 20,000 views so far. It would be wonderful to hear an update and see how your renovation has progressed.

 

Stevie

 

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