Fun for all!

Marelize Strydom of Newcastle writes I’ve always regarded buying a house as fun, but re-doing your home so that it reflects your family’s personality is even better!

Eventually the time came to revamp our main bathroom and I did all my planning – down to the finest décor detail. My husband, Mark, started with the prep: he chopped out, cleaned, welded, built a new door to the outside, and built the wall for the outside shower (using stones we’d collected in the mountains). My father and a helper plastered the walls and laid the floor. And, of course, Daddy’s girl decided to make life complicated for him: I decided I wanted to draw a design on the floor.

We installed the windows, and sealed the walls and the floor. Mark removed the ceiling because I wanted to see the corrugated-iron roof. He installed the plumbing, the bath tub, the basin and shower. I did the paint effects (not good enough, according to Dad’s builder’s eye), added the final finishing touches and voila! Our bathroom was complete after a month’s toil. Yet another project on the list ticked off...