Adela Design

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Here we go!

After a ream of paperwork and an agonizing wait, the finance approval for our extension came as somewhat of an anticlimax. Feeling I had been patient enough, I was already researching other options.

But we are well and truly on our way now, with Bellagio Construction engaged as our builder and living upstairs while the bottom floor of our home has the back completely redone. I had taken advantage of the waiting time to convert an upstairs bar into a kitchenette. It’s always a good idea to make sure you plan to be well catered for while you renovate as time seems to slip way past the expected completion date!

Our garage had become my temporary laundry and I always forget to put the door down!

In the kitchenette, I had the original yellowed timber cupboards painted a dark green grey and it did wonders for the glack granite benchtop.

With the expert help of Constructive Building Consultants and the input of my family (everything had to be viewed in Sketchup and approved before I could confirm the plan:) ) I designed a kitchen and laundry/scullery fit for our love of entertaining and an open plan living and dining leading onto a raked ceiling alresco with an open fireplace.

An overlay showing the new walls over the old and a birdseye view of the alfresco

Now I am having the mind blowing experience of seeing lines on paper come into being, starting from a measuring tape in the sand. progressing to concrete footing pumped in over the roof of our house and the excruciating effort to place a 2 tonne steel beam on the ceiling to take the weight of all the walls we are knocking out.

It is humbling to see the expertise of the site manager and trades, how they work as a team to resolve difficult problems .

Safety is paramount and patience is needed to bring a quality results - this supervisor held one end of the beam in place for nearly 1 hour.

With the holidays approaching, worn out workers left our project for a well earned break and we had to decide how we would spend our holidays given entertaining at home wasn’t an option this year. We decided on an Aussie Christmas at the beach and it was a great success. Maybe we have started a new tradition?