How this downsizer found the space to make her new home
Discover how the Space Invaders team helped this downsizer make every space count in her new smaller home.
Discover how the Space Invaders team helped this downsizer make every space count in her new smaller home.
It’s no secret that downsizing ain’t easy. Packing up and letting go of years of memories is an emotional, and rarely straightforward process.
For Carol, who has spent the last 20 years of her life in a typical three bedroom house, this is particularly true. Wanting to spend more time with her daughter Penny and her grandchildren, Carol decided it was time to downsize and move into a small granny flat at their home.
Penny’s partner Jamie had been renovating the home and had almost finished the granny flat when he was diagnosed with a debilitating autoimmune disease. The renovation slammed to a halt and left Carol to share a bedroom with her grandson in the main house.
As the list of things to do grew, Carol’s lifetime of possessions from her much larger house sat in unpacked boxes in the granny flat – more than double what will fit in the flat.
Noticing the state of the home and that their friends were struggling, next door neighbours Julian and Emma made the call to bring in Space Invaders for help.
The team arrives onsite to find a classic downsizing story that has left the family struggling to deal with the amount of clutter. Once Carol’s 103 boxes of stuff are shipped out for sorting it’s left to Cherie Barber and her reno team of hipages tradies to transform the small space into a haven for Carol.
With the bulk of the work on the granny flat completed by Jamie, on the renovation agenda is for Cherie to add her styling finishing touches to the bland interior, while the tradies complete the rendering to the unfinished exterior.
The backyard however, is another story.
Starting with unsafe steps made from a pile of red house bricks up into the yard, there’s stuff everywhere and the garden is screaming out for a major overhaul.
There is no theme in the space, the fencing is a hodgepodge of styles and materials and there is a sad looking bathtub that appears to have been used as a fishpond, “…but not in a good way,” laments Cherie.
Before the Space Invaders team intervened, Carol’s granny flat was filled with mountains of boxes and clutter and no prospect of Carol moving in.
With the help of decluttering expert Peter Walsh Carol was able to let go and reduce her clutter by an impressive 72%, and a donation pile of goods worth $2,000 went to charity.
Now with Carol’s treasures on display and styling to give the space a homey feel it”s a perfect one bedder for this downsizer to start a new phase in her life.
As there is so little space inside the granny flat Cherie and the team decide to include the building of a pergola in the outdoor space to give Carol a place to relax and entertain visitors.
To further transform the backyard into an oasis for Carol the team:
Not only does Carol now have a new relaxing space inside and out, the renovation uplifted the value of the entire property by a nifty $75,000.
Decluttering your garden may be a bigger task than you think. Follow our easy guide that covers all you need to know, from rubbish removal to landscape gardening, to help get you started.
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