Before. The photo above shows the house in the late 1930s and it wasn’t that much different in 1978 when it was bought, except that the timber windows had been  replaced with bright anodised aluminium. After the purchase, we discovered that the extension on the far left was a metre over the side boundary. This was demolished and a new wrap-around verandah installed across the front and down the side.   Our intention was to maintain the “holiday shack” character of the place in contrast to the proliferation of McMansions throughout the beach side suburbs of the Central Coast.

After

Above is what the house looks like now from the front.  It is very hard to see because of the garden which Gilly and her sister Sally, who are both bush regenerators have planted.  This is a low-maintenance garden that requires no watering and only occasional trimming.

This side view shows the verandah, which extends around across the front of the house.  The choice of materials and colours was designed to maintain the feeling of the original house and to blend in with the surrounding native vegetation.

The photo above left shows the front verandah, which was originally added to the existing house in the late 70s.  The cantilevered seat was added in the 1990s to accommodate the increased use of the place as the second generation of the family grew older and more and more people were sitting down to festive lunches on the verandah.  The photo in the centre shows the new entry steps being constructed (carpenter - Tony Coote).   On the right are the new steps in situ.  They were built to replace a  set of steps built in 1978, which had become too steep for the grandparents and toddlers. In the photo you can also see a small part of the original concrete pathway, which is referred to in my article Renovate or Detonate.

The new steps were built in 2002.  On the right of the photo is the new deck extension (see below).

This new extension to the verandah was built in 2006 to extend the verandah for use by the toddler third generation of the family.  It also lets in a degree of winter sun.  Another improvement has been the lining and insulation of the verandah roof.  Note how much the bush garden has grown since the 1930s photo.

The dining room and open kitchen on the right and the new verandah extension beyond.  The table came with the house and turned out to have a  fine timber top.  The house renovations were done on a very tight budget, so that much of the original house fabric was kept.

The living room with the existing fireplace, fibro walls and ceiling.  On the right is the new fireplace inset with a slow burning wood stove.