Author Archives: Bill Hutchison

Current Floorplan to our House

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Here is the floorplan for our house in the current layout. It’s about five to six feet above the ground so there are stairs coming off the back door straight into the back yard, and then there is a staircase off the front of the house that is shaped like a backwards letter “C”.

Original Floorplan

There are three bedrooms upstairs plus the living area, dining room, bathroom, kitchen and porch. There is also an area just behind the kitchen that we will use as an office. I just hope that our son will stay out of everything that we have to put in the office.

4cm Too Small for a Bathroom

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We heard back from the architect this week about a part of the plans for under the house. In my plans I had placed a bathroom under the stairs to make the best use of space. Unfortunately though the building code for Queensland requires a minimum of 90cm (36″) width. The space under the stairs is 86cm, so 4cm (1.5″) too narrow for the bathroom.

So now because of 4cm we have had to get rid of the walk in robe and replace it with a bathroom. I must admit that my wife is probably a little more disapointed about loosing the walk in robe than I am, but it is still a bit of pain because it will mean that our bedroom will now shrink to accomodate the new location of the wardrobe.

When I finally get the plans I will post them on here for you all to see.

Here is an article about another problem that we ran into with my original plans:

Renovation Planning Hitch

House Lifting and Restumping Schedule

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What I thought was going to be an easy process looks now like it will be taking a lot longer and be a lot more involved then I thought. Here are the steps that we are going to have to go through before the house is even enclosed under:

  1. Architect still needs to complete the plans (this is a lot more complex than I thought it would be and is taking over two weeks now for completion)
  2. Plans from Architect need to go to the Engineer who needs to take soil samples and check the structural integrity of the house as well as working out the structural needs of the new stumps and beams
  3. Plans need to go back to the Architect for any changes that need to be made for structural purposes
  4. Architect plans and Engineering plans need to be submitted to Townsville City Council for approval (minimum 6-week wait, but probably longer because of Christmas)
  5. Architect and Engineer may need to make changes to suit council requirements
  6. Resubmit to council if needed
  7. Plans go back to contractor who will be lifting the house
  8. Builder will come in and put three steel beams down the length of the house to support it as the old bricks and stumps that currently support the house are knocked out and removed and the old slab is also removed
  9. House is jacked up to about 3.5 metres above the ground
  10. New beams and stumps installed and left to set
  11. House is lowered onto new stumps
  12. New Stairs are built
  13. New slab laid under house
  14. Now finally at this stage it can be enclosed under

All of this is going to take them about six months from when we got someone to do it for us. The timing could be pretty bad as they will start about the middle of March and it will take them at least three weeks to get the job done. Our baby is due in mid-April. So we sure are cutting it close…

Replacing the Upstairs Windows

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We are replacing four older windows upstairs windows with new ones. One of the windows that we are replacing is an old timber double casement window that doesn’t quite work right anymore.

Old Double Casement Lounge Room Window

We are replacing that one with a single casement window that will match the double casement that the previous owners installed next to it.

New Double Casement Lounge Room Window

The other three windows that we are replacing are old sash or double hung windows that we are replacing with new double hung aluminium windows.

Old Double Hung Bed Room Window

I actually agonized over what kind of windows to get to replace the timber double hung. I even considered repairing and restoring the old windows, but I was too worried they would be unsafe for the kids. In the end we chose to go with what looked good and was in line with the period the home was built, but that was more economical and practical with the aluminium framed windows instead of timber.