Reason for renovation

When Jeanette and Thom bought the former rectory of the Dutch Reformed Church (which had since been a rental property) in 2013, it was in dire need of a total overhaul.

“We wanted to create an open-plan living area from three small, dark rooms (a separate kitchen, lounge and dining room) to better suit our lifestyle – and I decided it had to be done in a month, otherwise Thom and I would have to get a divorce,” jokes Jeanette.

“We invited a few friends over for a ‘hard hat and hammer party’ during which they could take out all their frustrations on our walls. Everyone was given a sledgehammer and in one night all the walls were demolished – and as a bonus we had a wonderful get-together.”

Then it was time for the couple to roll up their sleeves and get cracking. “The previous tenants had turned the house into a pigsty. It took us a month to remove the rubble, clean the cobwebs and chop out the jungle in the garden. But hidden underneath all this was a real gem: a house built in 1982 from only the finest building materials,” says Jeanette. >>