House In Progress Down Under
Alert reader Margaret C. wrote to tell us that House In Progress was in the Times Herald Saturday Real Estate Section...in Melbourne, Australia. Another place that I would like to visit and, alas, our website has beat us to it.
This is Margaret's house down under:
(Which for her is the right way 'round :)
Our house (alias money pit) was built in 1900 a mix of period features. We have been renovating for one year and at present we are recreating the hard plaster now [that] our electrical and plumbing installations are finished. We are still married !!!! And hope to move back in at Xmas. The possums, bees and pigeons have officially been evicted!
cheers,
margaret
The house looks absolutely breathtaking from this outside picture and Margaret points out an extremely important key ingredient from old house work...."We are still married!" Other renovators/restorers out there immediately know what she means by that.
Renovations are fraught with hardships and dangers. One of the better known ones is the tension it can put marriages through if the couple does not retain a sense of humor! (Oh! So important.) Another danger was reported by the SAME NEWSPAPER this past weekend and involves safety. Plasterboard can be very mean. It will just jump out and grab you. And always stack drywall cornerbeads on the ground...do not lean them against the wall. They are sharp and deliver a nasty gash (requiring stitches) if they fall over on you.
If you want to check out Australia's version of This Old House, click here.
While we are reading the mail from that hemisphere, let's check in with Garth & Alison from Tasmania!
Hi, from a wintery Tasmania,
We have recently bought a 1920-30's farm house on an 0.7 hectres, actually it was bought in 2003 and for the first 6 mths we lived elsewhere while it was rewired, replumbed , the bathroom and kitchen restored, floors taken up, new floors laid, units etc in... new Septic, etc etc... and haven't really started on the pickers hut yet, (it used to be a Raspberry Farm) or the garden...
In the process of stripping doors, dados etc... trying to return it back to the '30's farmhouse it was, so all this has made us appreciate your site. I haven't done a day to day account. I wish I had but we know where all the money has gone... still we think it is worth it as I am sure you do... to see a house in neglect become a loved part of the family...
We will keep watching the progress...
Garth & Alison W (& Gina the Maremma!)
(The above link isn't the ACTUAL Gina, but if she looks like any Maremma, she is cuter than a BUTTON!)
p.s. If they are tuning in, we'd like to say hello to Londoner-turned-Aussie pals, Jake and Catherine. Hope you had a chance to try the Ho Ho's! (Inside joke.)
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Comments
Nice to have Australia pop up here now, just as I'm reading Bryson's 'In a Sunburned Country'...
Posted by: john m | August 2, 2004 12:01 AM
Is the Melbourne TH article not online? :-(
Posted by: Tony F. | August 4, 2004 12:58 PM
We couldn't find it :( But if any of our friends down under could scan it, that would be totally cool!
Posted by: jm | August 4, 2004 8:28 PM
I just clicked on the link today, and there it was. I've been lurking for months and have really enjoyed your site. We live in an 1893 Stick/Eastlake Victorian in the SW suburbs of Chicago. It didn't need nearly the work yours does, but it is still very slow.
Posted by: Lisa | August 5, 2004 9:29 AM
Sorry - I found the plasterboard article, not the other one. Sloppy reading on my part.
Posted by: Lisa | August 5, 2004 9:29 AM