Hi ,

Finally, the guest house is starting to look like a house!

After weeks of stripping things out and rebuilding the structural frame that was never originally built right, the guest house is finally coming together – fast!

One of the biggest transformations has been the external cladding. Hardie™ Stria™ Cladding Fine Texture and Hardie™ Axent™ Trim have completely changed the look of the guest house, giving it the modern farmhouse feel I wanted from day one for this semi-rural setting. The best part was that I didn’t need to work it all out myself. I simply downloaded the James Hardie Modern Homes Design Forecast 2026 which provides plenty of design inspiration and advice on which products you can use. Why spend hours trying to figure it all out yourself when the experts have already done the hard work for you!

Want to see the guest house progress & cladding install so far? 🎬 EPISODE 6 IS NOW LIVE! Simply click on the image below.

THE GUEST HOUSE ROOF IS ON 🙌

One of the biggest guest house milestones is finally complete – the new roof is on & we’re now officially watertight!

I chose Lysaght Longline 305® roofing in Colorbond® steel Surfmist colour & I absolutely love it. This roofing has tall slender ribs with wide flat sections in between which creates these beautiful long architectural lines running down the roof. As the sun moves throughout the day, those ribs create subtle shadow lines that give the roof even more definition. It’s a key design feature and aesthetically, this roofing is in a completely different league to a standard metal roof. There’s also a concealed fixing system so you don’t see rows of visible screws or have screw penetrations which helps maximise weathertightness.

The Lysaght Longline 305 roofing provides
beautiful architectural detail to the guest house.

SPOTTED GUM + WALNUT + TRAVERTINO ❤️

Turning my attention to the internals of the guest house, I’ve selected Beaumont Tiles engineered timber flooring in spotted gum for all the internal floorboards, paired with Kaboodle premium walnut cabinetry and Travertino Vasari Surfaces benchtop from Stone Ambassador for the kitchen. In my opinion, Spotted Gum + Walnut + Travertino = WINNER!

I designed the kitchen using the Kaboodle 3D planner which is almost idiot-proof to do, mixing standard cabinetry with custom-sized widths, taller cabinets, premium soft-close hardware and pull-out storage.
To the naked eye, it’ll look like a fully custom kitchen without the fully custom price tag. One of my biggest renovation rules: you don’t need to spend the most money. You need to spend it in the right places.

My guest house kitchen was designed on Kaboodle’s free 3D planning software.

WE HAVE WALLS ON THE MAIN HOUSE! 🎉

After all the rain, mud, concrete and excavation, the main house finally has wall frames! You don’t know how satisfying it is for me to see these go up. Standing inside them for the first time has reinforced one of my biggest and possibly most expensive decisions – raising the original 2.4 metre wall height to 3.4 metres. The space now feels grand and luxe but it comes with a hefty cost to do this.

At this stage, there’s still about 25% of the wall frames to go up but these need to be made in steel not timber. Due to the soaring 8 metre roof heights in some parts of the house, a combination of timber trusses and steel beams need to be installed. I signed off on the timber roof trusses at around $37,000 inc GST but the steel quotes for supply and install have come in between $150,000 to $200,000. Talk about seriously expensive! I nearly needed to be supplied and installed into an ambulance after hearing that. 🤣 The timber trusses have a 2-week leadtime and for the steel, we have to wait 6 long weeks. Arghh!

The main house wall frames are up.
Now the long 6 week wait for roof trusses & steel beams.

WINDOWS 😳

I’ve alluded to in my last blog of the difficulties and expense associated with getting windows for this property. I’m pleased to report that after much research and deliberation, I’ve ordered windows in powdercoated bronze (yes, brown windows are back in fashion) from Trend Windows & Doors for just the guest house only at this stage. They’ll be delivered in 2 weeks time so we can get them installed and the last bit of James Hardie cladding on.

We’re about 4 weeks away from being able to reveal the guest house to you – I can’t wait to share all the before & afters with you!

Much love,
Cherie (CB x)