Practically Naked

It's alright, don't worry. I'm not going to strip.

I did neglect to describe the event in detail when our house did, though!

I speak of that momentous day when the front of our house not only got some long long long long long overdue paint slapped on, but had some fairly major walls/windows stripped off!

Enter our sleepout, as it was.

In fact, that's the remarkably clean, junk-removed shot of it not long before I threw that crummy brown falling-apart dresser out the window in preparation for the carpenter to come and start work.

The other side of the room was looking less tidy, holding a whole bunch of light fittings ready to be installed downstairs.

I wouldn't call it much of an improvement from this shot taken before we even moved in.

But this room has never really made much sense as an enclosed sleepout. It has suited us incredibly well as a store room, though!

This house would almost definitely have started out its life with a lovely open verandah at the front, and our intent has always been to bring it back to that former glory. So, while the painters were busily working away removing all traces of yellow on the front of the house, the carpenter started the very quick work of removing the ugly windows and walls.

Voila! Verandah!

Allie particularly enjoyed her new uninterrupted view of the entire neighbourhood.

Love that beautiful girl.

The removal process was repeated on the other side near the door at the top of the stairs...

And the next day all of the balustrade went up.

We replicated the handrails we built for the stairs, with one rolled hand rail at the top, and then the railings themselves between two flatter top and bottom rails, separated from the top hand rail a bit.

I know it's a cliche, but it opened things up so much! Not just literally, since of course without walls and windows the space feels more open, but it feels like the amount of space has doubled! Hooray for giant verandahs!

We do have a few concerns about this new open area to the right of the door, since someone energetic could probably just vault straight over it, making it a bit of a security worry. We're working on a plan to enclose (but without actually enclosing) that area above the railing though, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, you've already seen it, but how good does our new verandah look all painted white?!

Love love love love love love love it! And we get the most amazing breezes coming straight through the door at the top of the stairs. It's a wonderful place to sit in the evenings. You'd think the house was designed that way or something!