Renovating an Old House

We know that renovations entail a lot of hair pulling and teeth grinding and holding your breath moments than constructing a house from scratch, more so when you are renovating an old house. My family will move from our small apartment to my husband’s ancestral house just a few steps away. Moving is really not a problem because we can do it anytime of the day even in pajamas. But, we are so used to our small, minimalist surroundings that it will take time to adjust to living in a bigger space (physically and mentally). The impetus to this whole renovation was the availability of my trusted friend and worker to start on the project. So when he called, it just took a week and the renovation commenced even if I was not totally prepared and do not have a plan whatsoever. How ironic, considering I am an architect.

Here are some issues that I have encountered over the years. Unfortunately, the "before" pictures that I took were damaged when I transferred the files. Next time I should check if it was successfully transferred before deleting them! Now I have to contend to using the thumbnail views.

1. Old houses contain a lot of memories and a LOT of STUFF.

FACT. -- Old family houses are really depositories of memories and with it comes a lot of material possessions. We are also talking about not just one family but multiple families per generation, there are numerous items that you don’t want to throw away because we feel that if we do, we will forget. That these items, even as mundane as a sock, are the extension of what we will remember. I don’t think this practice is bad per se because Filipinos are culturally sentimental. I too value some items because it takes me back to that particular moment. The trick is to simply be selective of the memories and the items we wish to keep.

Clutter to sort and clean.

2. Renovation is easier than new construction.

FICTION. -- New construction gives you more freedom to design, renovation grounds you to consider and use whatever is right there. There is more planning involved in renovations (one I did not do in this case) and it is required so as to estimate the cost properly. Renovations are also more sustainable, because the carbon footprint to create a house is huge and tearing it down (unless it is unstable structurally) disregards the energy that was used to build it.

3. Construction work finishes on time, within budget, and without changes.

FICTION. -- Construction adapts to the conditions on site and most of the time it entails additional budget and extension beyond your expected completion. I had hoped to finish within two weeks for the rooms but we extended to three due to the discovery of termites residing within our walls. I had to remove all wall boards in one side of the room and do termite treatment which I did not anticipate in the beginning.

Termites! A major problem for old wood houses.

4. We can do interior decoration with the things we have in the house.

FACT. -- I am a fan of repurposing old items and make do with what is already there. For example, I need a vanity table (now that I am into skin care lol! See old post) and instead of buying one, I used an old antique table and installed a mirror on the wall. We did not buy any new furniture to create more breathing space in the house. I also asked the carpenter to dismantle the old cabinets to get materials for shelves that we will put in our rooms. Then there are the usual re-positioning of the furniture to make it functional based on our activities. I have removed the cabinets and drawers in our room to make way for the bed and walk space. Anything non-essential for sleeping has been placed in the other parts of the house.

5. Renovating is the only way to update the house.

FICTION. -- The easiest way to revamp a space is to organize and clean. Since we can only renovate the rooms, I simply did a major clean up. I disposed of files, old school books, old books, items that were broken, old linens, and anything that I will not use anymore. But I cannot completely eradicate clutter since this is a shared home. I just simply resigned myself that there are areas (such as our bedroom) that I can control.

Jansen unboxing his new toys from the hardware store.

Here are pictures of the kid’s room from the renovation. The smaller pictures are the before shots. Since we have not officially moved in, I would just have to take another set of pictures with the kids things in place.

I deliberately chose white walls to make the room brighter. White sheets also reminds me of hotel rooms and good night sleep.

The television shall be wall mounted making room on top of the cabinet. The existing storage drawers shall be added to the left side.

The table shall be replaced with the existing wood table and chairs in our apartment. This will also be their shared study area in the mean time.

The shelves came from the old cabinets. This area is for books and other toys and their writing easel.

Hopefully my little ones will customize this room and make it their own. I have provided the blank canvas for them to fill it with colorful creations and toys.