Renovating a house for a good cause

[esjay]

[An inspiring story to continue on from fakehs efforts]

Okay, so as some of you may know I've been on the Sunshine Coast over the holidays relaxing at my parents home and enjoying the beautiful summer weather.

I noticed some people from my the Stella Maris (my primary school) community working on a house over the road doing some sort of working bee, it turned out they had just start renovating a house for a family who had just recently lost their father.

It was a real sad story, the young family (mother, father and two girls) had just bought the house across from mine and hoped to do it up and live in it when life cruelly took the father away just a few months before Christmas. There was a huge outpouring from the community, and I must admit with the Christmas spirit and the fact that I only work at night i was inspired to help out anywhere I could (and hey, i was getting free experience doing all kind of renovation work.)

The renovation work was headed by local builder and both parent's families. The wife (Fiona) has had both her brothers on the jobsite since day 1, conveniently enough they are both tradies so they've done a buttload of the work, as well as their father and the husband's (tavis) father . There has also been plenty of support from the local school community (as mentioned) and the biking communities, as the husband (tavis) was a keen rider and triathlete.

I'll show you some kinda-before pictures, this is from about 1-week in, were currently at the last week of work before the brothers head back to Northern Territory to be with their wives and family over Christmas, there is still plenty to be done which will be looked after in January and February, but it's amazing what actually has been achieved over the 4-5 weeks.

Downstairs laundry - knocked down to be replaced, floor ripped up etc..




The front side of the house - messy and cluttered with crap


view from behind - not much structural support as you can see


Very bland (and unsafe) deck


Inside the main part of the house - walls had to be rewired, sanded, painted - floor sanded and rebuffed, kitchen built, to say its had alot of work would be to sell it short




Bedroom - waiting to be sanded and painted and eventually filled




bathroom


the back of the house - this is interesting because the area is on steep hill, and there were three houses behind it that storm water would rush through and end up in their backyard, creating utter chaos.


the driveway from HELL


Okay so now you get a good idea of the kind of work that had been going on, and thats just a taste of whats happened, as I'm very new to all this I'm a bit void of the technical terms of whats been happening, and the sheer magnitude of the project has sometimes been lost on me when I'm focusing on small activities.

And now some pictures of it all coming together. Some are from last week and some are from just this afternoon - I wont bother with captions as hopefully you can recognize from looking!







This is the other side of the house, it was just nicely cleaned up










thats my hat!











Theres a million more photos I could show and explain, and a million more stories to go with them - but alas we don't have all day - and I hope this inspires you to do some good over the Christmas break :]

[Wabtonio]

I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, but thousands of people die each day, why not help those families in 3rd world countries rather than those who are already brought up into a world with access to everything they could ever ask for. Just hypocritical that Australians only help Australians. Look at the middle east for god sake they need this more than anything.

[hystrix :D]

well done bro.

edit: wabtonio, he's helping the community

[Wabtonio]

There are other communities who need this help greater than them. Sorry to say, but it's true.

[Duke]

Yeah fuck you esjay you greedy selfish idiot, how dare you only help those people in your community and not everyone from around the world... I'm sorry, I just can't keep going on sarcastically, PLEASE tell me you're not serious, wabtonio.

It is awesome what they're/you're doing esjay, really nice work there.

[Lenneth]

I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, but thousands of people die each day, why not help those families in 3rd world countries rather than those who are already brought up into a world with access to everything they could ever ask for. Just hypocritical that Australians only help Australians. Look at the middle east for god sake they need this more than anything.

It's hard to say this.
There's many sides to what you're saying.

The people in the Middle East do get help, but if you help every single one then it's pretty much giving anything to them and they can do what they like. And then this would encourage false hope and all that.

And Battlefield, nice job to lend a hand.
If there were local things to do like this (That I know of) I would lend a hand.

[esjay]

I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, but thousands of people die each day, why not help those families in 3rd world countries rather than those who are already brought up into a world with access to everything they could ever ask for. Just hypocritical that Australians only help Australians. Look at the middle east for god sake they need this more than anything.

not claiming to be a saint, and I never will.

We could argue all day over who is the most deserving of charity work, the family are wonderful people and I'm glad i could have helped them through this difficult time in anyway

Upon saying that, in the past i've done both 40 hour famine to try and raise some money for starving kids all over the world - Christmas giftwrapping to raise money for people who can't put a roof over their head at Christmas. Once again, these are only minimalistic efforts but they form together to make something great.

I feel dirty having to write about all that - but at the end of the day although I'm not doing that much too help - there is no need for those comments, it's just an unwarranted thing to say - you're making some mighty huge assumptions.

[Duke]

At least now I know wab's either got brain damage, or he was in fact being an idiot, as his rebuttal was in the form of stardocks neg rep message '6'.

[hixxy]

/snip

Let me know when your done buddy, you can come around to mine and give me a hand

[h0rdy]

nice work esjay, very nice of you to help that family.

[Tom]

You're a good man shane, and I commend you upon your efforts.

[Wanky]

wow this has restored my faith in the human race

[D2therJdotCOM]

Shanem8, Wogtonio is an idiot. Just ignore the fuckwit.

Awesome work, put up pics once that shit is done

[Tom[wh]]

Looks good esjay _b keep it up dude

[esjay]

thanks for the support guys :>

Unfortunately the place wont be completely renovated until sometime into the new year. The family is going back out to NT to spend time with relatives over xmas so the house will remain dormant from this sunday (except for Shane 'poolboy3k' Legg) but I'll keep it updated

[corona]

I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, but thousands of people die each day, why not help those families in 3rd world countries rather than those who are already brought up into a world with access to everything they could ever ask for. Just hypocritical that Australians only help Australians. Look at the middle east for god sake they need this more than anything.

Wow. What the fuck at that statement?

I agree with making the world a better place, but you don't need to detract the good stuff that has been done here. Create another thread if you want to preach your frustrations regarding aid to those who really need it.

The point of this thread is to inspire some good will towards others over the christmas break - whether they be in the 3rd world or sitting next to you.

Not even any words of acknowledgement towards the OP - that makes me sad.

Good work btw - and it is inspirational. I don't see any hypocrisy is his actions at all.

[esjay]

update:

So i was up visiting my parents over the weekend, and decided to pop over and see how it was all going. The house is looking great and although there is still some things to be done they are definitely on the homestretch and it's starting to look like a home

Took a couple of pics for those interested, the driveway is so much nicer now, once the dirt/concrete has been moved and they can make a garden it will look so nice. Pool/side of house is a little messy, but in their current situation is it understandable:

Looking down towards my house


Space for cars to park


Sophie (Daughter) with the little garden they are building:


Back bit will look sick when the grass is gone and the turf is laid.


Downstairs kids area


Upstairs balcony


Upstairs main area (Fiona):


New bathroom all decked out:




Pool area, not bothering to clean it much during winter:


Another picture of the nice second car area:


Looking down towards our house, again will look sick when the dirt/concrete is all layered out. Have to walk all the way down there everyday with the rubbish

[Tom[wh]]

no pool cover? :{

lookin good tho esjay :D

[Stryker_-]

well done. things are starting to look up

[esjay]

no pool cover? :{

lookin good tho esjay :D

I don't think there was one for the pool, pretty good idea actually I wonder if they thought about that

[retribution]

I don't think there was one for the pool, pretty good idea actually I wonder if they thought about that

custom pool covers are a little on the pricey side

looks good though esjay, hows the mother doinng?

[<^>]

clean the pool cheaa

nah but seriously thats really nice people would do that in today's world

[esjay]

custom pool covers are a little on the pricey side

looks good though esjay, hows the mother doinng?

Yeah I thought that might be the case, to the best of my knowledge really well Seems to have plenty of support from friends and family which is cool to see.

[silent]

missed this thread first time around, seeing it now though it looks like a heap of work has been done. Nice of you to lend a hand.

[odin]

well done, but lame choice of a sink

should of got this

[enervate]

What a good deed

[mmmARK]

looking good mate

[D2therJdotCOM]

well done, but lame choice of a sink

should of got this

[Joolz]

I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, but thousands of people die each day, why not help those families in 3rd world countries rather than those who are already brought up into a world with access to everything they could ever ask for. Just hypocritical that Australians only help Australians. Look at the middle east for god sake they need this more than anything.

Why would you waste your time helping people on the other end of the world when you could probably make just a big a difference by helping those in your own country?

[crunchie_246]

great work esjay

big enough house if thats yours with the 2 cars

Going to have a lot of problems with that back garden if heaps of water is going through there that mulch will float away. Probably better with rocks/pebble and have some drainage boxes going through there

[BlakeFathom]

Such a community m8.
That argument by wabtonio was probably the stupidest thing I've read.

[k1ngovkatz]

Such a community m8.
That argument by wabtonio was probably the stupidest thing I've read.

brb jumping on the bandwagon

fuck u rami ur dumb go make another stopid argument u dumb cunt go back to cybergamer

[GwiZ]

little late but goodwork !!

[Ghosty]

Nice work!

great work esjay

Going to have a lot of problems with that back garden if heaps of water is going through there that mulch will float away. Probably better with rocks/pebble and have some drainage boxes going through there

Theres a massive spoon drain at the back and a huge row of drains in front of the wall. Plus all the ag pipe and sumps you see in the pictures, looks like they have got their bases covered.....

[boh~]

We still have people with brains in society, 2g esjay. ;]