Living in the Country is not for sissies (2)

The start of the renovation

Grant was besides himself with anticipation, as absolutely nothing in that house was what we wanted, so he gleefully took a sledgehammer to it. What a way to get rid of work stress. He hired a team of builders and started project managing, what would turn out to be a year long project of renovating this old farmhouse into a beautiful home. They actually ripped out all windows, doors, ceilings, floors, bathrooms, kitchen, electrics, plumbing, cupboards, lights, and most walls. Everyone thought we were mad, "why didn't you just flatten the whole lot and start over?", we were asked on numerous occasions, but we liked certain features of the house and wanted to maintain some of the integrity. Not many could see what it was we were trying to achieve, but we carried on. Now if Mum and Dad thought we were mad before we started to demolish the house, you should have seen their faces the next time they came down to see it. At this point they seriously thought both Grant and I had lost our marbles completely, but yet again they said nothing.

The Bar

This was to become our bedroom

The start of the gym

The Kitchen

Breaking through from the study to the lounge

Breaking through from the lounge

Windows and floors out

Ceilings out

Roof off

Even the garden didn't get away scot free

Some of the rubble that was accumulated, throughout the renovation

Now, this was an unfortunate encounter between a reversing truck and a 40 year old septic tank.

After purchasing the house, I then determined that I had in actual fact paid money for 40 years of some other people's poo, this is just about as grim as it gets, and gave me many sleepless nights. So when this "unfortunate" event occurred, I was absolutely ecstatic as we were left with no other option but to get a brand new septic tank and sink it, leaving me thrilled to no end. (no more, other peoples poo)