Renovating a Queenslander: Qld Spotted Gum

Thursday, 13 November 2014

The bedrooms

Our original Queenslander cottage had two bedrooms that had quite a puzzling layout - both originally and as part of its last renovation in the mid 1960's. In some ways this made it easy for us to change the layout of the house, as we had to move a lot of the walls that had been damaged by termites and/or were modified with asbestos materials during the 1960's renovation.

One particularly interesting puzzle was the location of the front bedroom. In this room, the bedroom door was positioned next to the front landing / verandah entrance way adjacent to the front door - but had no entry from the internal hallway. This lead us to wonder if the house was originally set up as perhaps a Doctor's office, or some other small work from home business, that necessitate an entry from the outside verandah rather inside the house...we need to do some more research to try and find out the history of the house! There was also a 'third' bedroom according to the real estate agent, which was actually a narrow single bed only sleep-out area that also opened onto the verandah - it now serves as our new pantry which probably gives you an idea that it wasn't a large room!

Lifting the house gave us lots of options in terms of bedrooms. We decided to keep two bedrooms upstairs but rather than try and squeeze in a third bedroom upstairs, we made the living area larger to make best use of the view and sea breezes upstairs. Downstairs we added two more bedrooms (both with more than sufficient room to put a queen-sized bedroom (I'm not a fan of modern homes with pokey third or fourth bedrooms that fit a bed and nothing else) and created a multi-purpose room that can be used either as a rumpus room, second lounge room, media room or a fifth bedroom at Christmas when all the relatives come to stay!

We spent a great deal of time designing the layout of the house and incorporating key features but trying to make the house replicate the simplicity of the original design with a central hallway, and french doors off every bedroom onto the verandah. We used reclaimed french doors, passage doors and windows wherever possible and kept the Queensland spotted gum hardwood floors throughout the house - as per the original Queenslander style. We also compromised somewhat, and decided to put built-in wardrobes in the two downstairs bedrooms to maximise storage - though they are walled with T&G timber and skirting boards so if we really wanted to, we could remove them and just put freestanding wardrobes there...but probably not. We also opted for ceiling fans, rather than air conditioners, and used traditional period features a Queenslander would contain such as breezeways above the passage doors (upstairs bedrooms), fanlights above the french doors, picture rails and tall skirting boards. The chrome light switches, window and door hardware also help 'unify' the rooms and hopefully add character without cramming the house full of period features that would overwhelm you!

I've already done a post about the master bedroom so I won't repeat myself and bore those who were dedicated enough to read it, but I have included some pictures for continuity of the bedroom theme! Note, the curtain rings have since arrived so all the curtains now hang on proper curtain rings so that they slide across more easily!

Original cottage master bedroom (now bedroom 2)

Original cottage - Bedroom 2 (now the main bathroom)

Original Bedroom 2

Original cottage - third bedroom / sleep out? (now the pantry / ensuite)

The old lounge / enclosed verandah that is now the new master bedroom / internal stairwell

Master bedroom

Master bedroom with walkway into the dressing room and ensuite

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Bedroom 4

Rumpus room / 5th bedroom

Rumpus Room

Monday, 21 July 2014

Hardwood floors

When we first bought the house we knew that there were hardwood tongue and groove (T&G) floorboards, however, they were covered by layers of vinyl and carpet (including vinyl tacted over carpet) so it was hard to gauge what condition the timber floorboards were in. The only way to gauge the condition and type of timber was looking at the floorboards from beneath the house.

While the timber looked to be in a relatively good condition it was near impossible to tell what species of timber they were until the floor coverings were lifted and samples were taken up, planed and taken to a timber supplier for identification. While we suspected the floors were Queensland Spotted Gum, it turned out that they were actually a mix of hardwoods - Spotted Gum, Black Butt and Ironbark. Interestingly, two of the rooms had Ironbark floorboards only, while the rest of the house was a blend of the three. Clearly the floorboards were intended to be covered and it was lovely that we would be the first owners in some eighty plus years to see them sanded and polished.

The floorboards were not without issues however. There were quite a few damaged boards in the old kitchen and the old verandah boards were a different width, direction and height to the T&G floorboards in the main house. While trying to preserve as much as possible, we had to be practical. Particularly as the Master bedroom was now half the old verandah and half the main house so boards on differing levels was not going to work. We therefore lifted up the salvageable boards from the kitchen and used this to finish the master bedroom, dressing room and hallway entry (which had also been part of the original verandah) so that the boards all flowed in one direction and were all the same height. We ran short of a few boards in the master bedroom but rather than use new boards for the whole room, we found a local reclamation supplier (Keber's in Murwillumbah) who were able to supply matching second hand boards to finish off the room.

Now that we had an open plan living, kitchen and dining area, we also had to decide where the old and new boards would meet keeping in mind that new in stock timbers, are a different width to the old timbers (slightly narrower) and that the old boards have shrunk and warped a little which meant wider gaps. The logical place was to keep the old boards in the kitchen and pantry and start the new boards at the entry to the kitchen (the join is under the kitchen) bench and the end of the hallway. On the advice of the builder and timber supplier we go new Qld Spotted Gum floorboards which had enough variation to best match the original floors, whilst also matching the Qld Spotted Gum decking boards. We got raw samples, put water on them to try to replicate the darkening of the timber during the polishing stage, and hoped for the best. Picking a floorboard based on one sample is not ideal as the variation in colour and grain between batches can be significant. Our timber supplier had done a great job with the decking boards, however, so we were relatively confident it would all work out!

The floor sander came and spent a few days cleaning the boards up, punching nail holes and getting the boards ready for several coats of polish before having to dash of to his wedding and honeymoon! Alas, he didn't get time to finish the boards before his wedding, so we're waiting upon his return and the installation of the cabinetry before we can finish off the boards. Final photos are still to come.