In 2011 the cottage was purchased as an investment property. Close to the centre of town, on a block surrounded by amenity, cheap price, cute enough, with potential, I thought why not? I figured it just needed a paint and a bit of TLC in the garden, maybe a new kitchen in a year or two when the tenant moved out. Easy investment……
Due to the small bedrooms compared to the size of the kitchen, moving a couple of walls and replacing the dated kitchen seemed like an easy enough small project that I could tackle myself, strong independent woman and all that. I moved in so I could reno after work and on weekends.
I started by ripping out the kitchen, this was going to be the master bedroom in the end, it was the biggest room in the house, so why not. During this time, I met a boy. He helped rip down the last bit of plaster in the house, and we realised that there had actually been a fire in the back part of the house, and that nasty, heavy, unbreakable, horse hair plaster had been used to hide the evidence and actually hold the house up..
I moved in with this boy, who happened to be studying architecture at the time.
Together we started redesigning the house. The back half had to be torn down as it wasn’t structurally sound, and the front half was sitting below ground on the actual dirt as there were no stumps. This was getting hard and much more than a DIY….
We approached the council with plans to knock the whole thing down, as it couldn’t be fixed and everything needed to be replaced, so we may as well build it from scratch. We had some rough plans for what we would build there instead, a Scandi inspired home that reference the old place thoughtfully. They (rightfully) refused this permit but said they would happily work with us to retain the original cottage. They agreed to allow us to demolish all but the front gable, and said we could build just about anything we wanted behind it. 
We presented more plans, ones we loved, ones that allowed the old house to be restored/rebuilt and provided an extension to allow this to become more of a family home for us into the future. They loved them. Time to get the bank and a builder on board…
Andrew Madigan of Madigan Builders was amazing to talk to and made everything seem actually achievable. We signed up the day we met him! Let the fun begin…
Demo: 14 July 2015.
Slab day: 6 August 2015
We decided to add a slab for a couple of reasons. The main one was that heating is so important in Ballarat, and both of us only get sick during the winter, so we wanted this to be a place to escape the winters. Our in slab gas hydronic system, supplied by North West Heating and Cooling from Geelong.
Framing time: 20 August 2015
This was slow as the extension was full of crazy angles (sorry guys).
Interiors and garden: October & November 2015
We did a lot ourselves, despite our DIY wedding being next month, and me starting a new job in Melbourne. October was nuts. I YouTubed how to build brick retaining walls, lay paving, build sheds, anything I could. We saved all the old wood out of the house and made various items out of it, we painted and cleaned and dug and did tip runs, anything we could do to help the builder and speed things up.
Moving day: 13 November 2015
We were forced to move into the unfinished house by impatient landlords. We didn’t have running water, gas, tiles or bench tops, but we had fences for our doggos and a roof over our heads. We were so bloody happy, and so very tired.
My kitchen tea was held here that weeked, in the garden that I created (with some help) with my own hands, and in the house I had created with my husband to be.
Our wedding was the following weekend. The boys got ready at the house and it’s strangely so nice to have those photos of them in the half finished home!
Since then, we’ve just done bits and pieces when we have time and money. Between my working in Melbourne and Simon (the boy) going on to do his Masters in Architecture, it has been a very slow process! We’ll get there one day, hopefully! In the meantime, come and see what we’ve created!
Simon and my relationship changed to a fond friendship during covid.
The Cottage Ballarat 