Our 2014 winners!
Christiaan & Marinda Labuschagne
A once dilapidated building on a smallholding is now the beautiful family home of this year’s Fix it with Flair winners – and they renovated most of it themselves.
Christiaan and Marinda Labuschagne aren’t afraid of hard work – when they decide to do something, nothing will stop them! Their home on the Vyfhoek plots in Potchefstroom bears testimony to that. The couple, who were married in December 2012, bought this piece of land with its virtually uninhabitable house early in 2013 and began their major renovation in November that year.
OPENING UP
The walls between the kitchen, which was very small and cramped, the living room and dining room were the first to go. “The house had lots of poky little rooms,” recalls Marinda. The kitchen was also at the front of the house with the scullery on the other side of the living room – a very impractical arrangement. “We wanted to move the kitchen to the scullery side and create an open-plan area in the rest of the space with stacking doors that open out onto the stoep.”
During the renovation, Marinda quickly learned the Labuschagne mantra: “Waste not, want not”. The beautiful stacking doors, for example, were made by Christiaan from timber that he bought for a song at a pawnshop. Another dream come true in the new open-plan living room is the effect created by the exposed roof beams which establish a light and spacious feel. “We had to remove all the corrugated iron roofing on one side of the house, move the purlins and install new ceilings before the roof sheeting could be replaced,” Marinda explains. The lights are also Christiaan’s handiwork and consist of steel pipes bent and welded together, with upside-down flowerpots from Mr Price Home as lampshades.
Total cost R59 640
The future…
The slab for the stoep has already been laid; now we want to build the pillars from old mine rock and put up a roof!
“When we saw what we’d achieved every day, we were continually inspired to tackle more projects.” – Christiaan
“Sometimes you just have to sleep in the dust.” – Marinda