Phase 1 - 1 week on
Tom finds the subtle-but-sturdy property and negotiates its purchase through a realtor. It is nothing fantastic to look at but he has grand plans for the inside, trusting that the exterior will deter potential thieves or vandals through it\'s unremarkability, while he is frequently absent. As security plans go, it\'s the cheapest he can come up with.
Phase 2 - 3 months on
This 'renovator's delight' is currently in a transitional mode, whereby the new owner has begun upgrading it.
From the outside, the small, single-storey brick home appears little more than a box squatting behind a bushy tree in an otherwise empty, unfenced yard. The letterbox is made of wood, painted brown and has a distinctive lean towards the cement driveway, which runs down the right side of the property, straight into the garage. There is a little verandah on the front, with four steps covered in peeling grey paint leading up to it. A screen door that doesn\'t close without a lot of fiddling and banging hangs in front of the white-painted wooden door.
Inside, major refurbishment has been undertaken. Walls have been removed, every surface has been repainted and every floor recovered, giving the house a strong set of odours to overcome when anyone visits.
There is a small porch at the front of the house, with room for a couple of chairs and a table to watch the happenings of the street from (if anyone was so inclined). The front door opens on the lounge room - there is a door in the far corner on the right that leads in from the garage. The dining alcove sits to the left and behind anyone standing at the door, as it juts forward to be in line with the front of the porch. This whole area of the living and dining room floor is covered with thick, soft forest green carpet, the ceiling matches that colour and the walls are a soft brown.
From the front door, the kitchen area is ahead and to the left, filling out the remaining space in this half of the house. The kitchen is quite pokey and separated from the dining area by a metre-long breakfast bench. The entry to the kitchen is on the left end of this bench. There is a door leading to the basement in the back corner, beside the sink that is against the back wall of the house. There are a lot of cupboards running down the wall on the right, above the bench set around the stove. There's a fridge and pantry on the left side of the room. The cupboards and appliances that now adorn the small area are obviously new; the fridge, dishwasher and bench over are shiny, silvery and sleek, the cupboards and benches are covered with gunmetal grey laminate. The ceiling in the kitchen is also forest green but the floor is covered with dark green slate tile, while the minimal wall space found in there is painted the same light brown as the lounge.
There are numerous windows in this half of the house - four in the dining alcove, a total of six shared across all three walls of the lounge and two above the sink in the kitchen. All of these windows have had thin, box-like covers built over them, painted exactly the same shade as the walls and making it look - at first glance - as if they're not there at all and the walls are entirely solid... even though windows can be seen on the outside of the house. Every door that leads to the outside is especially thick (with a metal core) and has a rubber seal around its edges.
Through a fancy - and obviously not part of the original décor - opaque green glass door set in the wall between the kitchen and dining alcove, the other half of the house is accessed. The hallway this door opens onto is an L shape that jags to the right about four metres along. It is covered with dark blue carpet, the walls are painted in burnt orange and the ceiling is also navy blue. There is a small, empty bedroom to the left that has thick beige carpeting and a beige painted ceiling, aubergine-coloured walls and a set of built-in cupboards with sliding mirrored doors. The bedroom appears to have had a sliding door at one point, but that has been removed. The row of windows are covered with the same slimline boxes as seen in the rest of the house - in fact, every window in the house has been covered in this manner.
There is a linen cupboard directly to the right at the start of the hall - covered with the same opaque green glass as the hall door - and it can be accessed from the bathroom that lays beyond it as well.
Another empty bedroom lays directly ahead - this one twice as large as the first - but it is covered with wine red carpet, soft lemon-coloured walls and a dark red ceiling. It has a built in cupboard on the right as one looks from the doorway (the windows spread across two of the walls are, naturally covered in) and has managed to retain a door made of highly polished, lightly-coloured wood.
Around the hall\'s corner, one faces the toilet straight ahead, the main bathroom to the right and the master bedroom to the left. The toilet and bathroom have a navy blue and white tile pattern running through them. The bathroom is quite small, only boasting a bath/shower, the other side of the linen cupboard and a basin beneath a medicine cabinet. It does have a large mirror but it fails to give the illusion of space to such a cramped room.
The master bedroom\'s door is the same as the bedroom beside it, but the colour scheme in this room is a mix. It has the dark blue carpet much like the hallway - this shade matched exactly on the ceiling - but the walls are a creamy colour with streaks of blue through the paint (a bit like marble). Walking through the door one can\'t help but notice the only bit of furniture in the entire house - a king-sized, four-poster bed with matching nightstand drawers on either side. The bed is luxuriously outfitted. About a metre from its foot is a long built-in wardrobe (covered in mirrored sliding doors, naturally) and to the right is the ensuite. This bathroom is tiled entirely in marble and is much bigger than the other one - it sports a double basin vanity with a large mirror above it, a separate shower and a three person spa bath in the corner. The towels and bathmats are all dark blue and the area around the sink on the right is littered with Tom\'s toiletries.
There is another small verandah through the back door (off the kitchen), from which the basement - where all the laundry equipment is kept - is accessed. The only other thing to be found in the basement is an enormous, expensive, darkwood coffin on a purposely-built brick dais in the centre of the room.
The backyard is fenced in, sports a few trees and is generally unremarkable, though the grass is kept too long and weeds are not discouraged (as it is out the front).
