Hi ,

For those of you who missed reading my first project blog last week, I’ve bought an 8.3 acre property on the outskirts of Western Sydney that I’m transforming into my very own modern farmhouse – complete with a guest house, veggie gardens, chicken coop, fruit orchards, beehives and a slower paddock-to-plate lifestyle. Basically, I’m swapping traffic jams for tractors. 🚜

This project is being filmed for a TV series airing next year AND I’ve already started dropping mini episodes on my YouTube channel, Instagram and Facebook account as the build unfolds in real time. For those of you who missed episode 1, just click on the image below.

The front facade of the house.

The back view of the house which shows the slope of the land.

The second dwelling on the property was illegally built by the previous owners.

WEEK 2 UPDATE

I had a plan.

I had a schedule.

I had an excavator booked and ready to go.

And then it rained. All. Week.

In Week 1, we smashed through demo like demolition ninja’s, cleared the site and were charging ahead towards the slab stage. Then the weather decided to remind me who’s really in charge.

As anyone who’s ever renovated knows, rain is the ultimate buzzkill. It delays trades, throws schedules into chaos and burns money faster than you can say “non-refundable deposit”.

What I know is that renovating is basically one long series of carefully made plans, being spectacularly ignored by Mother Nature.

It rained all week & I forgot to put my mower under shelter. No surprises why it wouldn’t start.

THE GREAT EXCAVATOR DEBATE

Last week became a constant game of: Will it rain? Won’t it rain? Do we risk it? Or play it safe?

The problem is, the wrong decision can cost thousands.

Excavators are one of those trades who are always flat stick. Most are booked out weeks in advance.

Being the organised person I am, I booked mine 4 weeks prior to dig all the footings in Week 2 for three new concrete slabs and a new large deck.

Forecast last week? Rain – Monday through Friday.

Now, controversial opinion… I never trust the weather forecast.

Half the time you cancel everything, the sun comes out and suddenly you’ve pushed your schedule back another week for absolutely nothing.
So naturally, I was ready to charge ahead.

My builder Josh however, had other ideas and insisted we postpone. At the time, I was annoyed. Now? I can admit he was absolutely right.

My excavator is costing me $1,500 a day. If he turns up and can’t work, I still pay. Worse still, if the footings and trenches he’s digging fill with rainwater, I’m creating a bigger issue that could take weeks to dry out. I already own a dam on the property, I don’t need a second one.

So Josh, if you’re reading this, congratulations. You win this round.

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FINDING THE SILVER LINING

You can’t sit around sulking every time something goes wrong on your renovation, especially when its something outside your control like the weather.

Instead, I used the downtime last week to tackle all the paperwork side of my reno. I spent the week indoors, glued to my computer, getting quotes, ordering sample swatches of various products, making roofing decisions, getting more roofing quotes and overall, just trying to visualise the interior design of all the rooms and the final look of the house.

One of the big things on my to-do list was narrowing down my wall cladding options for the externals of the main house. At the moment, I’m leaning towards the James Hardie Oblique cladding. This will need to be installed in about 6 weeks time so with the rain bucketing down, it was a great time to jump online and order a free product sample which arrived late last week.

The vertical panelling of this product feels modern so this is definately my top contender so far. And it fits the aesthetic I’m aiming for – modern farmhouse whilst looking pretty chic. Watch this space!

The James Hardie image online that inspired me to use their Oblique Cladding.

A GIRL & HER NEW TOY

Look, apparently we’re all supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day.

Unfortunately, my version of exercise lately has involved repeatedly running back and forth between the main residence and the guest house. It’s about a five-minute walk each way and after the first week of doing it a few hundred times, I quickly realised I was losing a lot of time, trekking backwards and forwards.

Ironically, driving around my suburb last week, I saw a sign on the side of the road that said “GOLF BUGGY FOR SALE”. I stopped and enquired but much to my horror, learned they wanted $20,000 for it. Not happening.

Disappointed, I went home, jumped online and looked up “golf and utility buggies” for sale on Gumtree & eBay online. Low and behold, a guy who owed a small nursery, just 40 minutes’ drive away, was selling his 5-month-old buggy, citing he bought the wrong piece of machinery for his needs.

To cut a really long story short, I scored this little baby below for just $5,000 smackeroos. It’s still under warranty and I must admit it’s like riding a dodgem car around on site. It’s so much fun and can get up to 60kms, I’m told! .

Sure, it’s probably not helping my step count, but it is helping my sanity. Plus, it has a tray on the front and back so I can now cart around bricks, tree branches, tools and the never-ending pile of renovation items without feeling like a pack horse. Let’s just say productivity is up and my daily steps are down. My hips won’t thank me.

Best of all, I pimped it up with custom made numberplates I got made on Amazon for about $50 – any guesses? “BEATS WALKN” 🤣

My new buggy that I’ll keep or ultimately resell at the end of my reno.

THE GUEST HOUSE SURPRISE NOBODY ASKED FOR

One of the most terrifying parts of renovating is pulling things apart because there’s always a chance you’ll uncover something horrifying, hiding behind the walls.

Week 1’s surprise? A structural post holding up the roof that wasn’t supposed to be there.It completely derailed my proposed floorplan and forced an immediate re-design of the guesthouse.

One of my Week 2 tasks was therefore to re-design the guesthouse. Instead of having a separate bathroom and laundry, the layout now has an ensuite bathroom instead.

The upside? It’s saving me roughly $15,000 to $20,000 in labour and materials as I no longer need to demolish additional walls. I can keep the existing ceiling rafters intact and we don’t need to completely rebuild the roof.

The downside? The bathroom and laundry layout isn’t quite as good as I originally envisioned but I now have a slightly bigger kitchen. Realistically, I can’t lose sight it’s only a one-bedroom guesthouse. Having the bathroom connected to the bedroom isn’t exactly the end of the world.

Would I have preferred the original plan? Absolutely. Can I live with this version? Also, yes. Welcome to renovating.

The floorplan prior to reno with non-compliant stairs across 2 split levels.

The proposed guest house layout, prior to discovering the structural post.

A quick redesign of the guest house last week after finding an unknown structural post holding up the roof. Location of the post is the black dot at the end of the kitchen island bench.

MY PLANS FOR THIS WEEK

Week 2 ended up being less “construction site” and more “weather event”.

As my project now enters Week 3, the goal now is to complete all the excavation for the footings and pass the first round of certifier compliance inspections. Just pray for me that the rain stays away!

Until next week,
CB x