Given the fact that we are expecting our second child in five months, the time has come to begin our epic challenge of making more room. We are lucky enough to live in our own home, my first ‘own’ home, in inner Melbourne. To be honest I never thought that I would be a home owner, it’s just so damn hard these days, so I am grateful and thankful to own our own little piece of Earth. Our two bedroom home, when we bought it, was what I thought was a palace. We moved here from a two bedroom apartment with no balcony, and when you are faced with your own patch of grass and an area big enough to actually use your dining table, it really does feel like you’ve hit the jackpot.
The thing is, I love my home. It might not be the biggest house, and we may not have a large backyard, but when you live in inner city, you give these things up to be close to the beach, parks and cafes which are only a two minute walk away. That said, we have had, over the past couple of years, always had the conversation about what we would do when another baby came along. Would we move? sell? buy another house? rent? leave things as they are? Each options has it’s own ups and downs. The fact is, however, that we love where we live, and unless we win the lottery, the chances of upsizing in this area are pretty tough. So we decided to invest our time and money into renovating our two bedroom house, and by adding some more space onto the back, we can get another bedroom and new living space. This new living space includes a new kitchen and laundry. I think I was sold on the renovation idea when we starting looking at ovens and island benches (oh how things have changed).
So after many months of talk, drawings and research, the time has finally come to pack up our belongings and move in with my (beautiful) in laws for 4?5?6? months, whilst our house is literally turned upside down. The challenge is to have it all complete by the time we meet Korber baby no. 2 (early June). Can we do it? We’ll wait and see! Over the last couple of days this has meant packing up our belongings into an endless supply of boxes (thanks to our lovely new neighbours who moved in next door and needed to offload their own moving boxes!). I knew we had a lot of stuff, but wasn’t quite prepared for the sheer amount of ‘crap’ that we have accumulated over the last four years. I’m up to 21 boxes and still counting. I haven’t even tackled the bedrooms yet!
It all dawned upon me that this was really real on Saturday, when Dan and our good friend ripped up our beautiful deck. No going back now!
This was before…
and now!
We are trying to get everything ready before I go back to work next week. I’m finishing up at the end of term 1, so then I’ll have time to rest, I mean Project Manage! Stay tuned to follow our crazy ride. I know that it will all be worth it!
Have you ever renovated your home? Wish us luck!
