I’ve been up to my earlobes in yet another renovation. Reno no.6 to be exact. This time its the upstairs house, the house we lived in as a family the longest.

To be precise the ‘house’ is a building of 3 residences currently. Originally the duplex my mother and aunt built on a piece of land they bought in the 50s. When we first returned to Greece in 1970 we lived in mom’s side of the duplex – a small two bedroom place with a tiny dark kitchen which is the place I renovated for mom last year. Given we needed more room than the little apartment, dad built a large apartment/house on top.

It was built in the 70s and we moved into it in 1978. You can guess the decor. Wallpapered throughout. Wall to wall carpet (in different colours and textures in different rooms…) and carpet in the kitchen!!!!! You heard right. Don’t ask me what dad was thinking.

I was too young to know or care about the design or layout of the house so I can’t take any blame for it. The original design was for 2 apartments but dad changed it and created one large house of 143m2. All he did basically, was turn the smaller upstairs apartment in the plans into one humongous living/dining room with a mammoth bar and fireplace.

The rest of the house is one decent sized bedroom with an ensuite with access from the hallway to double as a guest bathroom, a very big kitchen, a large bathroom and 2 small bedrooms, one not much bigger than a walk in closet. And a very long hallway.

Dad’s admiration of ‘the way things were done’ in Australia led to a suspended floor over the concrete slab, with plumbing and wiring underneath the chipboard underfloor.

He also loved wood. In all its natural stained glory. And marble. So the house is full of dark stained wood doors and wardrobe doors, mahogany wall units, oregon front door and swinging doors from the living room to the hallway and kitchen, timber ceilings, a parquet floor in the living room, and all timber kitchen cupboard doors. And a masterpiece onyx marble fireplace.

People lived differently in the 70s and 80s. At least we did. My parents had guests over for dinner and parties all the time. Mom still has place settings for 30 or more people, because they needed them then. No one I know has parties like that any more, and there’s not much call for a living/dining room of that size these days.

It was a beauty of a house in the 70s.

It did not age well.

Dad passed away in 1996 and not much was done to the house since. Small bits of maintenance. My brother lived here for a few years so he stripped wallpaper and painted the living room and one bedroom, I did another, some appliances were replaced, air conditioners were put in, but on the whole, the place is still more or less as it was when dad was still alive.

I’ve spent months stressing over what to do with the house… To keep it as one large apartment or split it into two apartments. Since 2 smaller apartments would be easier to rent given the unconventinal layout, it makes sense. However, its a lot of work, time and expense… Mom almost had me convinced to just ‘do a quick fix up job and rent it as it for now’… meaning get some money coming in, even if its under market value.

I was all set to do the slap dash job. I even got a painter to come in and paint the house – he even painted the bathtub and double sinks in the big bathroom.

A waste of money as it turns out, cause when we removed the old carpet I found that the underflooring was going to need fixing before any new flooring could be put down… and why pay to put in new flooring now, since I planned to split the house into 2 apartments eventually? It would be a bigger waste of money.

Since the underfloor needs replacing in the main part of the house, may as well do all plumbing needed while its up… and move the kitchen to a better place in the house now… well, in phase two of this reno. Just patching the underfloor and putting in new flooring only to have to rip it up at a later date when splitting the house in two would be stupid.

Maybe I’m just too fussy. I don’t know. I’m trying to do this renovation on a budget, but I keep wanting it to also be nice. I want to rent a place I’d happily live in myself. Does that make sense? Not really, as you can see by the photos how badly the house had deteriorated over the years, yet we still lived in it. I guess I just want to feel justified in asking for a decent rent.

The living/dining room is now becoming a single apartment with one bedroom, an open plan kitchen/living/dining area with the fireplace,a small bathroom which needs to be updated, and a hallway closet. I am going to re-use cabinets from the old kitchen in order to save money cause they’re in great condition. It has a large balcony that wraps around 2 sides of the house, large windows on both sides with views of the mountain, its own entrance and a parquet floor which will not need to be replaced, just refinished. It should be a nice place, despite the overkill of timber… There is more than enough to do without adding painting or replacing the ceiling.

Did I mention I quit my job so I can concentrate on grooming and art? After spending months in Athens overseeing renovations, naturally. Rental income will be VERY handy right now.

z

PS. Enjoy the photos, click to enlarge for the full horror.