Parallel projects, post-trip

We return from Europe in late August, and start on parallel projects.
We have our first booking from friends who want to stay in late September, so we need to have the house liveable by then. That's Project One.
At the same time, we want to get the renovation project underway: Project Two.
Lists are made.

Thank you IKEA

For Project One, it's an inventory of what's in the house, and what should be but isn't. Nick has left a few things that are duplicated in his new life, and there is also a collection of stuff that dates back to our time when it was our office. So there is a comfortable couch, two easy chairs that convert to beds, two office chairs, a TV table (but no TV) a kettle or two, cutlery, crockery, some cooking gear and a bar fridge. There is also a small dining table, on semi-permanent loan from one of our colleagues from the Computer Forensic Team days.
Major gaps in the inventory are filled by a couple of expeditions to IKEA, a couple to Bunnings, a couple to the Good Guys, and a lucky find on GumTree of a 37" TV (no longer available new, but just the right size for the space occupied by the TV table). After that there is much work on flat-pack assembly as we construct a bed and two bedside tables, and a set of portable shelves that will fit in the wardrobe in the bedroom.
By the time our friends arrive the house boasts a queen bed with electric blanket and bedlamps, nice linen and towels, a coffee machine, microwave, toaster, TV, CD/DVD player/recorder, hair dryer, iron and ironing board in addition to the furniture already in place. Our friends confirm that the place is now comfortable and enjoy their stay.
We feel that we've moved it from half a star to about 1.5 stars. To get it further up the scale we need to make progress on Project Two.

When not crawling round on the floor saying "Pass the allen key" to one another, we are making phone calls and sending emails to get Project Two going. Before we went away, our builders came and confirmed what we feared, that we would have to begin by straightening the side wall. It's been leaning toward the Finlay Street back garden for several decades (half a century?). We had it looked at from our side some time back, and when assured that it wasn't going to fall down, or even lean further, decided to leave it alone. However from the inside, one is aware of a significant gap between the ceiling and the top of the wall, large enough to admit rain and even a modest quantity of leaves from time to time. We get the experts back in, and make an arrangement to have a wall-straightening exercise done in October.
After much discussion between us, we reach agreement on the best place for a relocated bathroom. Deciding to move it is a no-brainer as it presently occupies prime real estate in the corner of the living area, and is as far from the bedrooms as you can get without going outside. We settle on sacrificing about half the second bedroom, leaving just enough room for a single bed or bunks, and a small desk. The question is then whether there will be any significant issues associated with moving the plumbing. The loo is currently situated on the back wall. From there the sewerage pipe goes across the back of the house to link up with an old outside dunny built on the back, which still has the original Federation pan and cistern in place, and, we think, still connected. The roof and door of this outhouse have collapsed, and it's full of earth and leaves, so we clean all this out and dump the rubbish in a convenient skip, with the permission of the friendly builders working over the road. The plumber who lives a few doors down kindly comes for a look at the present and planned future arrangements, and tells us he can see no barriers to a bathroom relocation - we can either take a pipe under the floor to the existing trap, thereby lengthening the sewer line by about 6 metres, or we can take a new line straight out under the side wall and join it to the sewer line that it shares with our house (so convenient to own both, as this will involve digging a largeish hole in our lawn).
Last but not least, we re-establish contact with the builder and architect. The builder is coming to cut through the brick wall where the side wall of the house becomes a boundary fence, a pre-requisite for the wall-straightening. The architect is coming late next week or early the following week to talk plans.
We're underway.

Parallel plans, pre June

There's no time to start seriously on our Guest Wing project before we head overseas for a couple of months. We do email the architect and builder that we used for our recent home reno, to let them know we'd like to talk about another project around September. And we get a bit of basic maintenance done - patching a ceiling, replacing light globes and tap washers, replacing window blinds, removing a tree and cleaning up the back courtyard until there is room for a car.

The story so far...

In 1999, the cottage at 1A Little O'Grady Street came on the market. The property is next door to where our garage opens into Little O'Grady Street, and its side wall forms the wall of our back garden. As it is wider than the house it backs on to, we also have a short section of boundary wall near our deck.
When it was up for sale, we listened with great misgivings to prospective buyers standing outside the property talking about adding a second storey, which would have had a very negative impact on our property. We solved the problem by going to the auction and buying it ourselves. As the ink was drying on the contract, we sent someone out to look for Rebecca, the lovely long-standing tenant, and told her she didn't need to move out.
Years passed, with Rebecca happily continuing to occupy the house. Then she bought a place of her own, but her moving out coincided with Computer Forensic Services (Peter's consulting company) being retained to provide expert evidence in two major cases in Sydney. Even with Helen working, Peter found that there was more work than the two of us could handle, and so we hired two more people, and the Little O'Grady Street house became our office. Four of us worked there for a year or so.
At about the time the cases were settled, in 2006, Helen's nephew Nick found himself homeless when the flat he was renting was sold, and the new owners wanted to move in. So he became our next tenant. He didn't mind that by now the house was rather shabby and in need of renovation, because he was paying family-friendly rent.
In 2015-2016, Nick's life changed dramatically when he acquired a wife, a baby and a house within 12 months. He moved out in May 2016, leaving the Little O'Grady Street house vacant.
We decide it's time for it to have an overdue renovation. But we also decide that when that's done, rather than re-let the house on a permanent tenancy, we'll keep it as a guest wing for our friends, and a paying b&b for friends of friends.
Sounds like a plan...