![]() ![]() During the renovation the original kitchen and part of the bathroom were pulled out, the carpet came up and the hardwood boards underneath were sanded and polished. “It was a great adventure for about a mo nth, but then it wasn’t so much fun any more,” she laughs. Lived in a friend’s 1950s caravan onsite for most of t he four months it took to get the house liveable, using a makeshift kitchen on the back verandah. Along with some help with painting and carpentry from friends, Fran employed local tradespeople for the renovation. The tiny existing window was salvaged and inco rporated as an opening section at one end of the new window unit, to allow for cross-ventilation. Double glazing and low-e glass reduce the heat loss from the window. “The shape of the window captures the peaceful treetop views to the south without letting too much warmth escape or giving the neighbours a view in,” she s ays. Lifehouse Design’s Robyn Gibson is particularly pleased with the long, thin window made by a local builder and set into the south wall. The door and part of the wall between the kitchen and the living room were removed, leaving a large L-shaped cut -out that brings light into the kitchen and connects it with the living space. The two bedrooms and the bathroom were retained as they were, but a collection of small wal ls and a triangular cupboard in the northern part of the main living room were demolished to open up the space. They con centrated on opening up the spaces and adding carefully placed windows for better solar gain and cross- ventilation, and to make the most of the rural views whil e maintaining privacy. The underfloor was insulated too.Ĭastlemaine building design firm Lifehouse Design cam e on board to produce a design for a floor plan reconfiguration that would work within Fran’s small budget. Polyester batts were installed in the roof and almost all internal and external walls, a job that necessitated removing weatherboards and replastering inside. Lack ing any significant thermal ma ss, the house needed to be thoroughly insulated to achieve better passive thermal performance. The house was a warren of small, dark rooms, with few windows to the north, making it cold in winter. Fran initially planned a small-scale renovation to improve the natural light access and make the house more energy efficient: “I had previously lived in a house that was off-grid, with a wind turbine, solar power and solar hot water, and it was really important to me that I spend money on those features.” However, she quickly realised that achieving her aims was going to require more work than she had thought. Sawn in half and relocated to the large site by truck around 20 years earlier, the weatherboard house had had little love lavished on it in that time. Also, a good sense of community was important to her, and she was already friends with the artists next door. “I wanted to buy a cheap house that I could renovate in the way I wanted to, not deal with somebody else’s renovations,” she says. On the edge of Castlemaine in central Victoria four years ago, it was “dark, dirty and dingy”, but it fit the bill. ![]()
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