I have shared the inspiration for our new kitchen and now I'd like to show you our selections and plans.  As I mentioned in my previous post we were keen to reuse as much as possible of our existing kitchen which was only three years old.  So our finishes are the same except the kitchen walls are now 1/4 strength rather than full strength Dulux 'White Duck' and white 100x200mm subway tiles will be added to the splashback.

Our fittings include our existing LG refrigerator, Miele appliances and Phoenix tap but we are upgrading to a larger double bowl Clark 'Monaco' undermount sink.

I am pleased that the extension to our house has opened up the kitchen area and allowed us to incorporate an island bench and study area.  We have also been able to add a broom cupboard and additional storage beside the pantry.


Our design was restrained by the desire to reuse as much of the existing kitchen as possible.  Careful planning allowed us to reuse all but three of our existing cabinets in the new design.  We are also able to reuse two of the three Caesarstone benchtops.  Existing cabinets are marked with dashed lines in the drawings below.

Study and Kitchen Southern Wall



Kitchen Western Wall

Kitchen Island Bench

Installation of the study and kitchen commenced last week and it is great to see our plans come to life.
 

The study and kitchen so far.

 

A beauty on Better Homes and Gardens USA


My 'Flashback Friday- Family Home Number 2' post explained how we sold our last house and had 60 days to renovate our new family home to a liveable state for our newborn Master H.  The kitchen was one of the main priorities as it looked like this-

I loved the last modern kitchen we designed in Family Home Number 2 with glossy white 2 pac doors, glass spashback etc.

The kitchen we designed in our last home

But this time I thought I would stick with more of a traditional look.  I found myself drawn to the classic look of Provincial style kitchens in magazines and A-M's gorgeous kitchen featured on her blog 'The House that AM Built'.-

Cape Cod Designs- AM's kitchen

We didn't want to make any structural changes to the house until we had finalised our major renovation plans so were restricted to a small u-shaped kitchen design.  Sadly, I didn't think to take any proper photos of our completed kitchen but here are some quick snaps I took with the iphone before we moved out and the house was a complete mess!

Now with our major renovation and extension, we are able to change the layout of the kitchen.  I am pleased that we will be able to have more storage, an island bench and study nook.  I found great inspiration on Houzz and numerous blogs and have been busy pinning to my kitchen board on Pinterest.  Here are some of my favourite images and main inspiration-


Georgica Pond Interiors- Mel's Kitchen



'Building Our House of Grey and White' Blog- Natasha's Kitchen

 


Cabinetry and layout inspiration.  Pinterest

 

Study nook layout inspiration.  Pinterest

 


Study nook inspiration.  Pinterest

 
I'm really pleased with the kitchen plan and selections that we have settled on and it's great that we are able to reuse 90% of our exisiting kitchen.  I can't wait to show you!

In 2006 we took the opportunity to upgrade from our first home to a property closer to the city.  We purchased a lovely little Queenslander from its original owner.  The house was very much showing its age and in need of a makeover!  The house is located in a DCP (Demolition Control Precinct) so any plans had to meet specific guidelines to maintain the character and architectural style of the home and be approved by Council.  And while the house was on a 579sqm block it was subject to the Residential Design Small Lot Code because it had an average block width of less than 15 meters.  We stayed on in our first home and left the house unoccupied for 6 months while we planned our renovation with a builder.    



Our first goal was to relocate the one and only toilet from a cupboard (on carpet!!!) in the second bedroom and close off the tiny opening allowing access from the kitchen.



What were they thinking?



Other than that, there were no major surprises or issues to deal with.  We chose to open back up the front verandah that had been enclosed at some point and close off the side sleepout to create a third bedroom or study.  We removed the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen and dining areas and added a back deck and new rear stairs.  It was an expensive exercise to replace all of the aluminium windows with traditional timber double hung windows but well worth it.  We saved money where we could by opting to paint the interior (never again!), replace the battens under the house, erect a garage and fences plus landscape ourselves.  We organised our own contractors to paint the exterior, do the tiling and polish the floors to make more savings.  It was a busy three years of hard work but we were more than happy with the results.

We completed the landscaping just as I became pregnant with our first child.  Perfect timing to relax and enjoy our family home!  But then we spotted the 'For Sale' sign on a house a few doors down the street...  and as if welcoming our first child into the world wasn't enough to worry about, we purchased another property and listed our home for sale.  I must say it was interesting having real estate agents visit us at the Mater Mothers Hospital to sign contracts and breastfeeding in the car while our house was open for inspection!  We negotiated a 60 day settlement on the sale of our house so that we had this period of time to renovate the new house up to a liveable state for Baby Master H.  Looking back, I don't know how we survived!  We were crazy to inflict this upon ourselves but I'm glad we secured a great property.
  

4 week old Master H and our Family Home.



We are actually repeat offenders when it comes to buying 'renovators' delights'!  We look past an undesirable facade and see potential.  It all began back in 2001 when at 22 and 23 years of age we decided to enter the housing market and buy a modest post-war home. 

Big smiles as we got the keys for our first home. 
We had no idea what we were in for!

The house was on a decent size block in a good location.  It had good bones even if the decor was a little dated!

Elated on the first night in our new home!
Check out the tiles, lino and curtains!

Discussing renovation plans in the bathroom.

It wasn't a huge renovation but we were kept busy over the five years of ownership.  We got straight into pulling up the carpet to reveal the beautiful blackbutt timber floors.  We removed a wall that separated the living, dining and kitchen rooms to create one open space.  Painting the walls and ceilings was a big task but saved us money to leave the exterior painting to the professionals.


Let the fun begin!



We gutted the bathroom and created a more functional and modern room.  The kitchen stayed as it was except some white tile paint did the trick at updating the pink floral tile splashback.  The dodgy carport had to go and Hubby M had his dream Titan shed erected in the back yard.  Lastly we tackled the gardens.  It took several attempts to fill the garden beds as our labradors acquired a taste for camellias!

So proud of his handy work!

Loving our old hand-me-down polycane furniture from the Grandparents!



Can you see the lengths we went to to keep the dogs out?
(And yes she is wearing a party hat!)




He even tried to help with the electrical work!


The fences were replaced and we were comfortable.  Comfortable, but ready for the next project!  In 2006 we spotted a real diamond in the rough so it was time to say goodbye to our first family home.  We were proud of what we had achieved and keen to apply what we had learnt to a new property.  However, it was sad to leave that humble little home where we started our lives together.  The place where we worked hard and dreamt big, where we learnt about renovating and learnt about each other, where we were engaged and married.  That house really set us up for life together.

Goodbye Family Home #1!

As I've mentioned earlier, it was a long process to decide upon our plan and proceed with the renovation.  Upon purchase we completed a mini renovation inside the house so that it was comfortable for us to live in with our newborn Master H.  But that is a story for another time!  We were keen to experience life in the house to decide if we would stay long term and have a feel for how the house 'worked' before completing any major works.  Of course we wanted to make the best financial decision too. 

Existing Floor Plan

Before long it was very obvious what didn't work in the house!  It was difficult for visitors to locate the entry to the house with two doors on the lower level beside the garage door and two bedrooms with french doors opening on to the front verandah.  The 'front' door was the last place you would think!  All the doors plus the wardrobe made it difficult to fit a queen-size bed in the main bedroom.  The living room and kitchen were too hot with the afternoon sun and too dark and stuffy with the blinds drawn.  Clearly, the layout needed to change.

But the big question was whether to raise the house and build under or extend to the rear of the property.  We took full advantage of Hubby M's skills as a Mechnical Services Draftsman and would spend any spare time drawing up possible floor plans.  30 at last count! 

Originally we thought it would be most economical to leave the ground floor for parking and storage and add a master bedroom, ensuite and deck to the first floor.   We were keen to maintain high ceilings and a nice roofline so the existing roof needed to be removed right back to the top of the hip.  However when we received quotes for this plan we decided the big cost of re-roofing wasn't worth the small gain of floor space.  One of the builders who quoted suggested it would be more value for money to raise the house and build under.

 

So after a few more months and many more plans we came up with a good design for two levels that worked with the existing structure as much as possible.  Three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a study/playroom on the upper level and kitchen, dining, living, forth bedroom, laundry and bathroom on the lower level.  A separate garage would need to be built in the front yard.  We thought we were on to a real winner with a structural engineer reporting that we could keep the existing slab and block walls...  

...until the quotes came in.  This time the hidden cost was in all of the earthworks and retaining walls required and the overall price was not viable. 

Megan Matsuoka Print - Etsy

Back to the drawing board!  By this stage I was pregnant with our second child and well and truly over house plans.  But I was even more fed up with living in a half-renovated, old house!  So we persisted with more late evenings on AutoCAD and committed ourselves to finding the best layout even if it meant undoing/redoing our existing work on the house.  And finally we settled on this plan. I had to laugh when I noticed Hubby M had named the AutoCAD file 'Final really this time.dwg'!



Level 1 Floor Plan

Ground Floor Plan

Front Elevation

Back Elevation

So what do you think?