A tour of our new old house

Back in December we fell in love with a little Queensland cottage that had been advertised for removal.  Even though we had agreed that we would NEVER own another Queenslander, after learning first-hand the challenges of rotten wood and asbestos boards in our last house, we both just can't get over how lovely they are.  So here we are again, with a little Queenslander, and its taken 7 months to organise to move it to our property, it arrived in two pieces a few weeks ago.  Now the revivalist has stumped the house and joined it back together almost seamlessly.  I promised that when the removalist was finished I would take you for a tour, so please join me in a tour of the inside of our little house.

Like many Queenslanders, this house started with a wrap around veranda, which is very efficient for keeping the house cool.  Over the years the parts of the veranda have been built in and extended to add the kitchen and bathroom (these would both has been separate buildings originally, kitchens had a habit of burning down).  There is still plenty of veranda though, and we've orientated the house so that the built-in side ('sunroom' on the plan), faces South, so it will stay cool all year, and we can open up all the window (fly screened!) for a lovely breeze.

Here's the current floor plan

and here's what it would had been like originally,
the red is the original house, the green is the original veranda.

this is a view of the 'sunroom'

the bathroom

more bathroom

the kitchen

veranda off the kitchen

looking down the hallway from the lounge
(camera on an angle, not the house!)

main bedroom - the RED carpet has to go!!

main veranda

main veranda looking to laundry, ignore all the plumbing!

Some of my favourite little bits and pieces

cupboard in the sunroom

the catches on the cupboard

art deco door latch

retro kitchen cabinets

MASSIVE pantry, so excited to fill this up!

hook out on the veranda

fancy 'breeze ways' above the bedroom doors

latches on the inside doors

old light switch

love the details on the hooks!

little latch to hold up the sash windows

windows above some of the doors swing open for more airflow

Things that are not so great

the kitchen sick is stupidly low, it will be moved....

vertical flouro lights in the bedroom.  No.

plush red carpet in the lounge and main bedroom,
it is in embarrassingly good condition.
Also not sure if we'd like another woodstove, but this heater is nearly new.

this cut in the ceiling of the sunroom is the only evidence of the move

this is the two pieces that moved

There is LOTS of work to do inside, but first we just need to focus on the plumbing (installing rainwater tanks and septic system) and the electricity (needs to be fully rewired).  Then we can think about painting in the inside and fixing up the bathroom and kitchen.  

What do you think?  Have you renovated an old house?  Do you find their charms irresistible like we do??