Sorry this is the slate floor

Hi Cindy,

Well what would I call it, old style ha-ha it's quite an unusual home but a good buy and some reno's and you'll probably be very happy.

So I'm assuming this is the existing floor plan so it is quite a big home.

First thing is if the home is on a slab and if it is then ideas of changing plumbing is pretty much out the door so to speak, in other words you can't really change the footprint of the rooms as they are although if plumbing is near an outside wall then it might be possible.

Secondly I'd like to know where north is as you would place important frequently used rooms in this orientation in my opinion that is and of course again based on the whether the home is on a slab or not.

I'm assuming the family room faces the road and that could be north so Bed 1 or 3 faces west?

I notice also that the master or Bed 1 has no ensuite, BIR or WIR so just looking quickly, if you wanted your own retreat and didn't need 5 bedrooms and assuming the home is on a slab and the footprint has to remain as is for all the plumbing,

I would reconfigure bedroom 2 & 3 into the master bedroom, move the bathroom as far as possible towards bed 2 and create a WIR and given the bathroom is on an outside wall it might be possible to do that.

OR

You could use the existing office for a WIR and use bed 3 as the master so you'd have an outside window at least and still try to move the bathroom into Bed 2 a little and perhaps what's left of bed 2 could be used and an office as you'd gain the BIR space allowed there so you'd get another 600mm for the bathroom move but I've notice bed 3 shows no BIR either so I'm assuming this is based on the age of the home?

If you need a large office then Bed 1 could suit and you could build multiple work stations for others in the family as well as office storage etc...and if it's too big, you could add more to the garage for extra storage of all outdoor toys like bikes, mower, surfboards prams etc... as 6mts will only allow comfortablly for a vehicle with some wiggle room and often there is nowheer for other things that have to be safely stored.

The home really is an unusual shape and if you could easlily change plumbing then it could be totally different again?

Thanks :) appreciate all your suggestions! Front of house (so existing kitchen) faces south.

can you share some of the real estate photos including inside and backyard and a Google earth photo of the roof would also help

To me, your home is a 1960’s fibro home usually found near the beach side suburbs in Western Australia. Great homes that may of been added onto over the years. So.....style for me is 1960 beach home.

Dreamer you are on the money lol beachside town in WA !

Additional pics

And more

Bathroom…

We use to holiday at a home like yours in the 1970’s in Falcon south of Mandurah.

The slate tiles don’t look too bad, they appear, from the photo to be smooth. A lot of slate floors had an uneven tiles. Yours you could certainly work with, or install an engineered board over the top of them.

Found this article. Modernist Australia beach shacks.

https://thedesignfiles.net/2010/11/modernist-australia-the-beach-shack/

I see on Dreamers reference there is a mention of asbestos , and I was going to add some other 'cautions' .

I'm in NZ , and we had a lot of these ( trust those Aussies to claim they were unique to them ) called Fibrolite Cottages . Ours tended to be not only at the beach , but also a lot were farm cottages . Fibrolite I think was a brand name , and was basically a mix of fibre ( sort of rough paper ) and cement and asbestos , mixed like cement and compressed into 'lite' panels and dried .

The houses were basic designs made out of 4 x 2 ( 100x 50 ) , these panels were nailed up , then the wooden ridges were nailed over the joins and painted . A lot weren't insulated ( power was cheap and plentiful , so every house in NZ at that time had 6 or 8 panel heaters around the walls ) , but a lot of these leaked or at least allowed water to soak through over time , and the framing started rotting . Sort of okay for a beach house , generally in warmer climates and used mainly in summer , but a lot of the farm cottages got interior mould , rotten walls and floors , and the fibrolite itself went green . By the 1990's , most farm cottages were getting in bad shape , and due to this and the asbestos , they'd often dig a hole with a bulldozer and smash the house into it , sometimes burn it , then cover over it .

I don't want to panic you , just outlining our NZ experience .

Hi yes we did check that out - there is one section that has asbestos and that’s been painted /sealed. But we are always cautious!

Sorry Cindy, but I thought that you would be aware of what fibro means. This is fibrous cement sheeting. Usually homes built in the 1950, 60 were built from fibrous cement sheeting, which is basically sheets of asbestos. Google, “James Hardie “. You said there is one section in your home, but as I said in a previous post, this is a fibro home. Therefore the entire exterior would be asbestos. A lot of people still comfortably live in fibro homes, but if you intend to knock holes in walls and disturb the fibre sheeting, then I would definitely get a professional to check the entire home, and confirm what is and isn’t asbestos sheeting. This cement sheeting stopped being used in the mid 1980’s.
Please be careful, you may be lucky, but please get the home checked by professional asbestos people.

I am it’s ok ;)

That’s is good, enjoy your home.

Hi Cindy, you’ve got plenty of room and the cottage is already cute, it just needs a little love. Are you sure the floor is slate?? The evenness of the finish and the smoothness of “grout” lines suggests vinyl which means you may be able to pull it up and have a nice surprise of timber floors.

when will you know if your offer has been successful?

We know now :)