Nice view - shame about the view!
Well we sold up on the Central Coast (50 Miles/80 Km) north of Sydney in May 2007 and found a place in Sydney with a great view of the harbour - and a terrible view of the interior since nothing has been done to the place for 30 years (at a guess).So while we can look at the boats sailing up and down the harbour, we have to pretend not to see the peeling paint of the interior - BUT - we have big plans for a major renovation to turn a 3-small-bedroom apartment into a one bedroom and a-dining-room apartment.
Ah, what about a spare room? You might ask.
The problem with a spare room overlooking Sydney Harbour is that everyone will want to come and stay and there are plenty of apartment hotels nearby which have a similar view - and we'd rather friends, relations and anyone else who comes to drinks or dinner stays there.
The block of apartments is right on one of the main roads leading to Kings Cross which is the centre of the party/nightclub/porn scene in Sydney and a hom-nightmare. But the part of the road we're on it chock full of two men holding dogs, holding hands, holding shopping bags or walking fluffy dogs.
You can see photos of the apartment and plans here.
These plans have taken 6 months of discussion (argument) with the Body Corporate (representative committee of owners) to approve - all because we want to remove one wall between two rooms - thus the change has to go to council for a Development Application, which the Body Corporate has to approve - and they are so small minded it's unbelievable - it's cost over $12K in engineers fees just to prove that a new toilet/bathroom won't disturb the other apartments - it's a 1/3 of the flush and we're replacing the bath with a shower - so how could it - Duh!
Now they've finally agreed to replace the roof - just like the report we had before moving in suggested
However, finding products/designs/suppliers has been fun - as well as playing with Google Sketchup to design the interiors (it upset the architect I think because he couldn't produce better drawings/ideas than I could) but we got what we wanted and it's been very helpful for visualising the change and the Modern Art-Deco Stylee that we're aiming for.
Meanwhile I have finally started sailing on Sydney harbour with the sportsboat crowd at the CYCA which I run past every morning - only to find that certain crew members are so homophobic and prejudiced -- it's like stepping into another world or Monty Python's Bruce Sketch played out on a boat - ouch!
posted by Pewit @ 10:50 am
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