A blast from the past...

We were in Fundaberg (sorry, Bundaberg) over the weekend for my sisters engagement party. While I was looking on my dad's computer for some pictures to on the digital photo frame I bought as a gift I came across these real estate photos of our unit before we bought it! In all the excitement at the time we forgot to save copies for ourselves.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the agent placed a few props in these photos, such as the moving bowl of fresh fruit, the flowers on the lovely plastic dining table and the photo frames with nothing in them next to the bed (behind which the wall was FILTHY when we moved in).

What do you think? Does it look better now?

Bathroom renovation in progress!

When we bought our unit two years ago, the whole place was pretty structurally sound... except for the bathroom. Thankfully original 1970s mosaic tile floor was in great condition, but the shower/bath was another matter. The steel tub had previously rusted through around the plug hole, resulting in a substantial leak into the garage. The previous owners had done a patch-up solder job, but we knew it would only be a year or two before we had to rip the whole thing out.

In the meantime, we decided to get rid of the peeling beige paint and replace it with something a little more interesting - a colour called Desert Bake by Taubmans! John's not keen on the whole room being this bold, so we may end up re-painting the main wall in something a little more subdued (perhaps Desert Bake's complementary colour Cherokee Smoke).

And now just this week, the time has come to replace the bath! We've spent several months waiting to get to the top of the tradesman's list, but at least he was willing to do a partial reno (since most people we contacted refused to consider a job worth less than $15 000). So far our old tub and wall tiles have been ripped out, and our new tub has been fitted and the plumbing connected. We decided to pay a little extra to have another steel tub so it fits with the original look of the bathroom (as opposed to an acrylic tub). It's also been difficult finding a bath that fits in the space, as we didn't want to cut into the wall if we could help it!

Hopefully within the next few days the tiles will go up, and then next week we can stop showering at the neighbour's place!

Study: Before

Ahhh, the spare bedroom/study/junk room. So many hopes built into one little room.

Thankfully the second bedroom in our unit is of a fairly decent size, complete with large built-ins. Our main requirement for the space was as a study area where we can put a desk and desktop computer. We also wanted to use it as a spare bedroom for when guests visit (especially since both of our families live out of town). And, of course, we also needed somewhere to dump the clean washing before it's folded. The study was painted the same ugly beige colour as the rest of the unit when we moved in. This, combined with the hideous blue patterned futon mattress, meant one very ugly room. We weren't quite sure how to configure everything either, so it was a little cramped to begin with.

Bedroom: Before

The first thing we noticed when we stepped into the main bedroom was that, like the living room, it was HUGE. Even with a queen bed in there, it was clear that there was going to be a lot of space to fill. The bedroom also had a large balcony with huge sliding doors, the same as in the living room.














When we had our building inspection, the bedroom was absolutely filthy from the tenants who were in the process of moving out (complete with a big dirty stain on the rear wall). Thankfully, it had huge built-in cupboards to house all of our clothes (and all of John's shoes!).













When we moved in, not a lot of our stuff really matched anything in the bedroom - and I suppose it was quite a big ask to expect things to complement dark blue carpet AND beige walls and blinds. The bed frame was something we could work with, but not much else.















It was more than a year before we managed to paint the bedroom, so we did our best with what we had. One thing we did add was a small Flokati rug at the foot of the bed to fill in the large space a little.

'After' pics of the bedroom coming later today!

Living areas: Before

When we purchased the unit in August 2007, it had been in the rental system for many years.

The carpets were a stain-friendly dark blue-grey, clashing with the typical beige painted walls found in most rental properties. For some reason, the previous tenants had chosen to throw another colour into the mix - bubblegum purple in the dining alcove.

Although hideously ugly, the unit was in excellent structural condition, with nice recently painted textured ceilings and marbled oyster light fittings.