The farmhouse had been added onto over the years, creating a maze of small, dark rooms (far left). In addition to the stoep that was opened up, Jeanine and Loubser also moved the bathrooms and kitchen – the latter is now part of the open-plan living room. The old kitchen and adjoining pantry now form the guest bedroom and new en-suite bathroom. “This drastic change to the layout was a huge challenge, and Loubser had to plan the plumbing and drainage very carefully,” says Jeanine.
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Due to neglect, most of the vegetation around the house perished; the façade was dusty and drab. The Therons’ first step was to open up the stoep (above, far right) – the windows were removed to once again make it a traditional open farm veranda. The wooden ceilings were retained and painted white. All the wall-to-wall carpets in the house were removed and the couple were pleasantly surprised to find wooden floors underneath. “Other than the stoep carpet, which had a cement floor underneath, we discovered beautiful original wooden floors that didn’t need much refurbishing,” explains Jeanine.
Quite a few rooms were previously painted in dark shades and together with the boxed-in layout this created a depressing atmosphere. In addition, the doors were coated with old-fashioned oil-based paint, which had to be sanded down. The chunky builtin cupboards were removed from the bedrooms to create more space. Since Britskraal isn’t their permanent residence, the Therons can manage with more modern, freestanding shelves that don’t take up as much space.