I bought a house - General plans

I BOUGHT A HOUSE !!!

I've been struggling to get out of the rent trap for a few years now; and FINALLY I am in a position to do so. My very first house!

So a bit of a different post this week, but I am just too excited to write about anything else.

This will be a short introduction to my house and my plans for it.

I'll probably do posts later on about specific things, such as selecting a kitchen or painting the walls.

The property I finally settled on is a 2-part property in Gordon's Bay.

I call it a 2-part as the property will be shared between my sister and her family, and myself.

Tamara and her brood will stay in the main house (left on the picture); while I get the opportunity to renovate the garage into the home of my dreams. 😀

The ground floor will have to be fully redesigned as I want to add a kitchen, a lounge, a dining area and a (dry) half-bath.

I also want to add some fabulous windows and french doors where now the garage doors are; so I can look out onto my garden.

Upstairs, I'm doing minimal renovations: ripping out the current "granny-flat" kitchen and a few updates on the master bathroom.

Probably the most costly exercise will be that we have to put in a new staircase. There is one at the moment, but it is outside. Not so comfy in winter.

I do want to keep the outside staircase for fire safety as well as using it as a vertical garden.

The garden will lose quite a bit of space, I want to wall it in for privacy, but that means we can't go further then the boundary line. Additionally, we need to make parking space for at least 3 cars.

With the current water-crisis in Cape Town, I think it is vital that all new buildings include water-savings systems.

In that light, the half-bath on the ground floor will be a water-wise bathroom. I'm planing to install a composting toilet as well as a basin that will drip directly into a catchment tank to irrigate the garden.

We will also install jojo tanks, one which will hold nonpotable clean water and a specific grey water tank for water that has already been used, but has at least another use in it.

If all goes well, we should be starting the renovations soon; and I am aiming to move in end of May.

Thanks for reading. If you have renovation tips, please let me know.

See you in the next one!